It's Christmas Time in the Cities

On the contrary, this year I was fortunate enough to have Christmas off from both of my jobs. After work yesterday I drove down snowy I-35 and arrived in Pella shortly after 10pm. Kyle and Amanda beat me home a couple days so everyone was home by the time I got there. Last year I was late by a couple days and the year before that everyone trekked up to Dubuque to open gifts and celebrate. The snow made travel take a little bit longer but it was nowhere near as bad the year there were storms during Thanksgiving and Christmas and it took me over 5 hours to drive from Dubuque to Pella.

Earlier in the week I worked downtown at Fogo de Chao and from the light rail I saw the deflated dome. I had seen plenty of coverage on the news and during Vikings game, but it was weird to see it in person.

The snow keeps falling in Minneapolis. Our latest snowfall on Thursday night and Friday helped us top the record for the snowiest December in history. (http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=895829) At the house and at the airport and pretty much everywhere you look, we're running out of places to put it. After a while it gets difficult to throw the snow over the pile you you made the week before. Thank goodness for snowblowers. I can't imagine what it was like before them.

Next week we will have friends over to celebrate New Year's Eve. I was also fortunate to have this holiday off this year. However, I forgot to request off the following morning so I will be valeting at the St. Paul Hotel. Hopefully there will be quite a few guests on their way out who are still feeling generous and want to spread some holiday cheer.

Snowstorm Round 2

It was a busy week for me with work. I valeted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights after working a 10 hour day at the airport. By Saturday I was ready for a break, but I could only sleep in until 9am. Snow began to fall at 10pm on Friday night and flights at the Minneapolis Airport had already been canceled through the 1 o'clock bank on Saturday. For some odd reason, friend and "crashpadder" Nick still had to go sit at the airport on reserve from 5:30a to 2:00p. Someone in scheduling didn't think that one through.
I spent the day watching the snow pile up. The Minneapolis Airport closed early in the afternoon because the trucks just couldn't keep up. I was released from my valet shift for that night because the party I was supposed to work had been canceled. So I watched movies and made barky pretzels and then I enjoyed about half of them while playing video games.
I slept in again this morning. The snow stopped last night, but the plows had not been through our neighborhood yet. I didn't plan far enough ahead and went out to clean of my car at 11 (about 10min before church started). By the time I got the snow off my car, the plow had come to clear our culdesac. So I had to wait for him. The other half of Gold Trail had not been cleared yet either so I had to plow my way through that.
The Vikings v. Giants game for this afternoon had been postponed last night due to the fact that the Giants charter flight had to divert to Kansas City. When I got home from work I learned that the Metrodome roof had deflated and torn in several places and there was snow on the field. The Gopher's new stadium couldn't be made ready for the game because of all the snow so the game had been rescheduled to Monday night at 6:20p in Detroit.

I also saw that my friend Paola was on Saturday Night Live last night for the first time! I was pretty excited for her. The last time she was supposed to be on her skit got cut from the program right before they were about to perform. She has been on the soap One Life to Live several times before also and has even had lines on that show. You can see her here on SNL. she's in the front left in purple at about 3:17 and 3:43 http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/whats-that-name/1264557
Today Patric continues the closet project and I also plan to get caught up with my chores and cleaning my room. It seems to be a constant task because I never have time to put stuff away at the time.
Not sure where this picture was taken, but it was posted by a friend on Facebook.

First Snow

Like most people, when it comes to the weather forecast I'm quite skeptical. I never believe it's going to happen until it actually happens. Needless to say I was surprised to wake up to these views. As of 9am we probably have 5 inches of the wet and fluffy stuff already on the ground and it's still coming down! This might require more help at work tonight or people may make the wise decision to stay inside. Either way I'll find out at 5pm when I call in to see if my shift is needed or not.
The weather doesn't great for Evanston, IL either for the match up between the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats. I'm hoping it's not that close of a game. We need to into next week strong against the Buckeyes. As ESPN.com points out, Northwestern has beaten Iowa in four of the last five meetings. Last years loss didn't keep the Hawks out of the Orange Bowl, but this year it could keep them from a conference title and significantly hurt their BCS ranking.

Halloween

Yesterday was my first real shift working valet downtown. I was positioned at Fogo de Chao which is the easiest restaurant in the city center because it's two right turns into and out of the garage. It went well. I got to see some pretty wild costumes of patrons walking down the street. A few of the honorable mentions are as follows: a group of Alice in Wonderland, a group of Super Mario Brothers, and despite the cold weather there were many people walking around in sandals (and I don't think they were in costume).

After work I went to a costume party hosted by friends Treye and Jen. If you don't have Direct TV, you may not be as familiar with this commercial, but I see it all the time so I went as the well-to-do Russian Direct TV customer. Here is a link to the commercial in case you haven't seen it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWYbcbpiWA I got components of my costume from Goodwill which now actually promotes their selection of items for Halloween. They had decorations (which I think were new) and signs that said something to the effect of Halloween headquarters. I thought it was weird.

This morning our pastor explained the history of the holiday: It began as All Saints Day, which we still celebrate, to honor those saints who had gone before us or were serving around us. So the day before or the eve of All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve to honor all of the Saints, known and unknown. The word Hallows is rooted in the word Holy or Hallowed and that is how Halloween is derived.

So Happy Halloween and Happy All Saints Day! Anybody else getting discounted candy directly from the store tomorrow?

I got a new phone!

Here's a copy of the event I put on Facebook. I thought it would make a good blog post:

I got a new phone, but don't worry, I still have your number, and I didn't change my number either. But if I didn't have your number before, then I still don't have it. If you would like me to have it, feel free to send it to me. My number is on my profile. Please txt me your number and include your name and I will add you to my contacts. Don't write it on my Facebook wall. That's just annoying. Then I have to manually enter it into my phone. And if I have to do that then there's a good chance you won't make it into my contacts list at all.

You're probably interested in why I got a new phone. No I didn't leave it in an airplane bin. I didn't forget it at the bar or drop it in the toilet. I didn't step on it, throw it or run it over with my car. It didn't go through the wash or fall into a bucket of paint (Amanda). I just decided I didn't want to have to charge my phone after every call I made. US Cellular doesn't have a market in the Twin Cities so my phone was always looking for a home tower.

So I went with Sprint. Got a pretty simple phone. Don't need it to do anything more than call and txt, but it does have more capability if I change my mind in the future. I have nights and weekends from 7pm to 7am and unlimited messaging for those of you who are considerate callers/txt'ers. :D

I appreciate you taking the time to read this meaningless event description. I just wanted you to know that I got a new phone. Thanks and feel free to attend!

Yesterday was a good day...

1. It was Friday!

2. I bought new shoes for work. Regional Elite requires all black shoes with their new uniform so I was preparing for that change that takes place at the beginning of next year. My new part time job as a valet also requires black shoes.


3. I found a book at work on Thursday on the topic of CSS. It's a language that defines the styles on a particular web page so that you don't have to do it at the beginning of every paragraph. It keeps the content area of your document cleaner because you tell it what to look like at the top of the code. I skimmed through the book at work yesterday and started taking notes on the stuff I didn't understand or wanted to experiment After a co-worker said no one has touched the book in over a year, I decided to take it home and play around with some of the examples. I may even try to clean up the airport's website a little bit.


4. They Yankees are out of contention for the World Series compliments of the Rangers. I watched a few games of the ALCS, but did not last night.

5. I found a $5 bill on an aircraft I was searching. It was one of the required searches I had to do, but ops also called me to do a "special grooming". Expecting the worst, I brought a broom and bucket, "barf gel" and air freshener. When I got there, all I found were some crumbled pretzels. I swept them up and continued my search. About halfway through I found my biggest "tip" ever.

I was going to see if I could get to 10 reasons but I think 5 is sufficient. Today will be a somewhat of a lazy day for me. I'm about to play around with the CSS. The Hawks take on Wisconsin at 2:30. Patric's dad and grandpa flew up this morning to help Patric put a new walk-in closet in the master bedroom. They will be framing out the area above the garage. I'll be taking pictures.

UD Homecoming 2010

I decided on Thursday evening of this week to make the trip to Dubuque for a few of this year's homecoming festivities and to catch up with several of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while. I didn't feel like driving the 5 hours each way and I was anxious to begin using my flight benefits again, but since there's no direct service between MSP and DBQ, I decided to fly into the Quad Cities Airport and rent a car. Moline is probably the closest airport besides Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, but they also had the best deal on car rentals. Cedar Rapids cars were way over priced (because that location owns their own cars) and the flight to Waterloo arrived much later and that location had limited hours.
My plan was to fly down on the 7:30 flight on Friday evening after work. There were only a couple seats left, but I decided to chance it. When I got the gate to request my seat, the gate agents was about to assign my seat when someone else got rebooked and took the seat out from under my nose. I was so frustrated because the lady who took my seat was sitting right next to me and I overheard her entire conversation about how she was supposed to go into Cedar Rapids. So I returned home and slept in til 7am the next morning. The earliest flight to Moline was at 10am and I had no problem getting on since there were only 8 other passengers listed.
My rental turned out to be quite a treat. I had reserved a compact car and the agent was about give me a PT Cruiser (ugh, kill me now!) but when I mentioned that I had previously worked at the Avis in Dubuque, he hooked me up with a dark blue Sebring for the price of the compact car. (I forgot to take a picture so a stock photo will have to suffice.)

It had leather seats and an aux input for me to plug my iPod into. I felt pretty swanky showing up to homecoming in this.
I went out with a friend to watch the Iowa football game. I put my name in a drawing and won a hat! After the third quarter we left to catch the second half of the UD football game. When we arrived the Spartans were tied with the Simpson Storm at 7 points a piece. I spent more time shaking hands and catching up with former constituents and classmates than I actually did watching the game. Before I knew it the Spartans had scored 28 unanswered points and the third quarter had come to a close. Wanting to maximize my time with everyone I decided to hit the road and meet up with my former roommate Tad and his wife (who is expecting, Dec 17). From there I met up with Trent and Stacey (who graciously offered me their couch to crash on). I picked them up and we went to drive past their new duplex on the west end of town. They will be expanding their living space quite a bit when they move in next month.
It was a good trip, but way too short. I wish I had more time to spend with each friend. I'm sure they would all agree our time was rushed. Hopefully next year I'll have the foresight to plan ahead more so that I can make an extended weekend of it.

October News

I really shouldn't wait to blog until I get bored or have nothing better to do, but I do. I always seem to find something that requires less effort. I've probably said this before, but my goal is to write every week so that the current events don't pile up and become a heaping mount of archaic tidings. Sometimes I struggle to find something that's interesting enough to share every week. The reason for delay on this report is that I was waiting for the news to be finalized. So, on we go with the meat and potatoes...
The big news is that I returned to work this week. Everyone was excited to see me again and it felt good to be back. Then I realized that it was still work and I wished that I could go back to being lazy and playing video games all day long.
I continue to go to physical therapy once a week and do strengthening exercises daily at home. My shoulder still feels weak and the numbness varies in location and intensity.
This week has also brought challenges in the form of wireless network troubleshooting. With the addition of two more computers and a wireless gaming adapter (for Xbox) to the network, things have become a little complicated. There must some sort of conflict because we've had problems connecting sometimes with the router and sometimes with the modem. The service has been unreliable but I can't tell if Qwest entirely to blame. I've spent several hours this week reconfiguring the network to work out the bugs, but it's like playing horseshoes (or bocce ball): just get it close and hope for the best.
This weekend I'll try to enjoy my three days off and be ready to head back to work on Tuesday. I have physical therapy on Monday and another followup with my orthopedist on Wednesday. The Hawkeyes have a bye this week and the Bears, well they need one after that pathetic performance against the Giants last week. However, they travel to Carolina to take on the Panthers and the Vikings will play Monday night against the Jets. Hopefully Randy Moss will give the Viking offense what they need for the remainder of the season without being a distraction to the team.
That's all for this edition. Since I don't have any pictures to include with this post, I leave you with this video of the badminton championships. The volleys don't start to improve until about 55 seconds so feel free to skip ahead.

Summer Review

As you all know it's been a while since my last update. With this week marking the official start of the NFL season and fall premiers on television, it seemed like a good time to get back in the swing of things myself. I suppose I could have kept up with the writing during my recovery, but I think I would have found typing with one hand to be more frustrating than therapeutic. I also received a new camera from sissy so there's an added incentive to put pictures with my posts.

So lets review. I got motorcycle. Had fun with motorcycle. Crashed motorcycle. The question every one has been asking (among others): have I learned my lesson? Well I would like to think so. The lesson I learned was to always ride at your own pace an comfort level.
The other questions I was most often asked were "What does the other guy look like?" and "Did you have a helmet on?" It was frustrating for me to have to answer the same thing over and over, so I eventually came up with creative or shocking responses to keep myself entertained. Surprisingly I wasn't asked if I was wearing clean underwear, but I was. However, I was not wearing matching tennis shoes at the time of the accident, which I didn't notice until I was sitting in the emergency room with nothing to do. And that's all I have to say about that.
A couple weeks after my accident my friend Trent got married to his high school sweetheart Stacey De Joode. I made it through the ceremony without incident. Everyone was very understanding and accommodating. I even had a good time at the reception with the help of a few prescribed narcotics.

It's been a long two months of recovery and I'm ready to get back to work. The vacation in Pella was enjoyable. It reminded me of what it was like to have to summer off from school. Seeing old friends, making some new ones, watching the stars, grilling out, and eventually getting bored. I was so driven to boredom that I took on the task of sorting boxes of school and childhood memories and even organized the shop. My stuff never got organized in my move from Dubuque since everything got packed in a hurry. I can't say that it had been organized before that either but the point is that now it's done.
I had my first physical therapy appointment on Friday and the therapist says my range of motion is outstanding for being in the sling for 8 weeks. She will be checking with the doctor to see how much we can progress for next time. In the meantime, I took home a pulley system to put over the door. I grab onto the handles and use my right arm to pull my left arm above my head. I have another set of exercises to try to get the muscles in my shoulder to relax and hopefully in a few weeks I will be working on strengthening them.
Other than that not much else on the horizon. I'm looking forward to outstanding seasons from all my football teams (Bears, Vikings, Hawkeyes, Dutch x2, and Spartans) and baseball teams (Cubs and Twins) even though I usually end up loosing interest in baseball in favor of football.

A Few Firsts

Last weekend was somewhat stressful (for me at least, you'll have to ask them for the real skinny) as Mom and Dad tried to make their way back from Florida. They took the previous week to visit Grandma and Grandpa Erickson and my dad's sister and brother-in-law in Ocala/Orlando respectively. Flying on Sunday is never a good idea when you're flying standby as I have found, but there appeared to be a lull in traveling activity between the spring breakers and summer vacationers. I guess I was wrong. However, I should know that everything in the aviation industry in as unpredictable as a untamed horse. Mom got the last seat from Orlando to Memphis as scheduled, but Dad missed every possible flight out that day. He got a bonus night stay at the Braswell Inn and 10 percent off his spa treatment the next time he's in town, or so I'm told. ;) On Monday, he got a seat on the afternoon flight (first try of the day) but missed a flight from Minneapolis to Des Moines on account of it being oversold. The 7:15 pm flight had seats left and he finally made it home late Monday evening. Thank goodness for coffee or Tuesday's workday might have been scrapped as well.

While working at the airport on Saturday of last week, I ran into a co-worker who had some tickets for the Minnesota Swarm lacrosse game that he wasn't going to use. I had been curious about lacrosse since my roommate, Patric, had started reffing high school and junior high lacrosse games on the weekends. I had seen a few college games on ESPN before, but never been to a game and didn't understand the rules. A classmate from Dubuque had called the night before looking for something to do while he was in the twin cities that weekend and this game was a great solution. I hadn't been downtown for any kind of entertainment since moving here so getting around was an adventure in itself. The Swarm play at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul which is also where the Minnesota Wild hockey team hosts its home games. Indoor lacrosse games are played on the same sized field as a hockey rink only they lay down turf. Can you imagine playing lacrosse on ice? I suppose it would be the same as broom ball. Anyways... There was much more hype about the game than I had expected. It was the last home game for the Swarm and they were already headed for the playoffs. Coincidentally they were playing the Orlando Titans. The game got off to a good start as the Swarm scored in the first 14 seconds! Music clips of popular songs played at nearly every change of possession. There were many families in attendance with what I assumed to be their lacrosse enthusiast sons and daughters. Many carried lacrosse sticks with them like I used carry my baseball glove to baseball games in hopes of catching a foul ball. The dance team performed between periods and mascot Buzz was roaming the stands throughout the game. Near the end of the game they raffled off a custom Ford Mustang to a lucky contestant who appeared to be a die-hard fan. The only disappointment was that the Swarm lost in sudden death overtime.
Besides going to my first lacrosse game, this week I purchased my first motorcycle. It's been a fantasy up to this point and now it's finally a reality. Patric rode the bike home for me from Belle Plaine, MN and gave me my first riding lesson. Since then I've been practicing with carpet squares in the cul-de-sac in preparation for the riding skills test. I've received many words of caution from co-workers and friends and I can assure you that I have the utmost respect for this machine. I won't be doing anything stupid because I know the detriment it would have to my career and health. I also know that it's the other guy I have to watch out for. Great words of wisdom from my driver's ed teacher Mr. Murphy and many others. The other words of wisdom I'll never forget: always wear clean underwear.

Spring Break(s)

Since my last post, I've had several adventures. The last weekend in February, I took advantage of my flight benefits and visited Andy and Lacy Lundgren in Glen Ellyn, IL. For dinner on the night of my arrival, we stopped at a Portillos for chili dogs. Lacy made me some peanut butter bars which were delicious. We hung out playing video games and watching movies. I ended up staying and extra day because one of the flights from O'Hare had canceled causing the seats on my flight to fill up.
The next 12 days were filled by working at the airport, something I hope to not do again in the near future. Last weekend Mom, Dad and the fam visited to kick off spring break week. We visited the Mall of America on Sunday afternoon. Amanda got some jeans and Kyle and I walked a complete circuit on each of the three levels around the mall.
Monday, we visited both zoos in the area. The Minnesota zoo is closer but the admission fee was too exorbitant for our time frame. We then made the drive up to the free Como Zoo in St. Paul. Afterward we took a scenic drive around St. Paul to get to Target Field. No tours were available so we just poked our heads in the gates where we could. I'm looking forward to getting to several games this year, but I hope to keep up with the Cubbies as well. Dad wanted to see the Guthrie Theater and it's "endless bridge" so we stopped by that before dinning at El Loro, a local favorite
Mexican restaurant.
This past weekend I decided to drive down to Dubuque and visit my high school friends Trent and Jacob. Iowa received a small winter blast on Friday and snow covered roads resulted in my sliding into the median on I35. A wrecker had already responded to another car in the median about 1000 ft from where I slid in and after pulling him out, they came to check on me. No damage was suffered, but I was stuck too far down in the sogginess to get out under my own power. The rest of the weekend was enjoyable. We watched the NCAA tournament games, including UNI's victory over Kansas. On Sunday, I stopped to see some former coworkers from the airport before heading out of town. I also stopped in Cedar Falls to see Amanda for a few minutes on my way back to the Twin Cities.
My vacation continues tomorrow as I have taken the day off to use up some of my paid time off from 2009 before it expires. I've got a list of chores though, so it will be a mixture of relaxing and catching up.

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend I joined roommates Patric and Erin in Winter Park, CO to witness their vows to each other. I took a flight to Denver after work on Friday and was fortunate enough to catch a ride with another friend of the couple going to the wedding. I saved half of what I would have had pay the shuttle service. We made it to the rehearsal dinner at Azteca about 30 minutes late, but were welcomed with open arms. It was good to see friends from the University of Dubuque and meet some new acquaintances. I stayed in a hotel room with Aaron Soenksen (my former flight instructor) and his wife Shannon and Neil Weston (a former UD instructor) and his wife Molly (a former classmate at UD).
Saturday morning I slept in as best I could. As you know circadian rhythm is hard to break. I took some pictures around the lodge and borrowed Aaron's laptop to stay current with what was going on in the Facebook world. I hung out with the groomsman and ushers before the ceremony. We had some sandwiches for lunch and I took a few more pictures of the mountains out the window.
The ceremony began around 3:15. It was fairly short and sweet. The backdrop of the mountains was beautiful but definitely something that had to be experienced firsthand. A cocktail hour followed the wedding ceremony while the wedding party took pictures. We had Italian buffet for dinner. I had chicken and penne noodles, vegetables, bread sticks and salad. After dinner the dance party got underway. I was the recipient of the garter. If anyone is keeping track, this is the 4th garter I've caught from the last 5 weddings I've been to. Not sure that that says anything though.
On Sunday morning we hit the road at about 8:30. I rode back to the airport with Nick Sieberg (a UD alum, pilot for Mesaba and "crashpadder" at the Leuschke house), his wife Brianne and their son Landen (the ring bearer). Landen got altitude sickness overnight even though they had been there since Wednesday or Thursday. He was spitting up, so we hurried to get him off the mountain. Once we got to the airport he was much better and he was back to himself by the time we got to Minneapolis. The flight from Denver to Minne was full so we were all slightly worried about getting a seat. We made it without incident and I was home by 7pm after giving a ride to some other friends who took the flight after us.
After the fun-filled weekend I still had Monday off from work to recoup and get some chores done. I picked up Jackson and Sam from the boarders and they were really excited to see me. It was another cold week at work, but the prospects of next week are looking better. This weekend my plan is to get my tax returns filed. It might also be a good opportunity to make something in the crock pot. I don't think it's been used lately except for smokies at New Years.

Still Searching for Lake Wobegon

Well, it’s been a quiet week in Eagan, MN my new town, on the edge of Minneapolis. The holiday travel season has just about come to a close. Many a passenger sat and waited for their flight, hoping that the inclement weather had not forced the flight to cancel. The ramp agents didn’t seem to mind too much. Bag loads increased slightly and the snow made it difficult to push the carts around and more shoveling had to be done, but there were less flights to load so it all worked out. Even in the brief moments of chaos, co-workers pulled together to get the job done. In a way it brought everyone a little closer for the holidays, even if they couldn’t get home to see their families on Christmas day.
I was one of the fortunate ones who had to work on Christmas day and Christmas Eve day. Knowing that the holiday flight schedule would be less demanding than normal and the weather may leave me with almost nothing to do, I brought my laptop and a few of my favorite holiday classics to watch. On Christmas Eve, our break room enjoyed three movies through the course of our 10 hour day. Not too shabby if you ask me. Christmas day played out in similar fashion. It’s unfortunate for the people traveling, but such is the nature of the beast.
After the storm had passed, I did make it home to Mom and Dad’s house on Saturday afternoon. I left Eagan at about 10:45 and arrived in Pella at 3:30. The roads were fair, but I did count about 8 vehicles in the ditch along I-35 and 2 resting on their roof near Ankeny. We opened gifts shortly after I got home and later that evening we went bowling with Darel and Jacob. I bowled a 123, 100, 171 series. All over the board, but you get to drop your two lowest scores, right?
On Monday, Jacob helped me change the oil in my car and rotate the tires before I headed back to Minnesota. We ate lunch at Pizza Ranch because I had been craving it for so long. I grabbed a valance from Dad’s office for my bedroom window which I hung when I got home. I think it sets the room off nicely and the theme fits with the locale.
As promised from my last post, I would be happy to share my new address if you don’t already have it. However, I prefer that you email me and ask for it rather than post it on the internet for everyone to see. I’ll try to keep up with this news medium/ creative outlet more this year. Thanks again for your patience.
That’s the news from Eagan, MN where there’s not a Hy-Vee to be found, a casserole is called a hot dish, and you just pray your car starts at quarter after 4 in the morning.