MSP logs consecutive 100% first-flight days

November 21, 2011

The Minneapolis/St. Paul airport team achieved two back-to-back 100% first-flight days during the weekend, a first for the MSP operation. On Friday and Saturday MSP had 51 consecutive first flights that departed on time. Accomplishing a single day of 100% first flights is very difficult, and back-to-back days, for a hub the size of MSP, is very rare, said Bill Lentsch, s.v.p.-Minnesota Operations. “Achieving back-to-back 100% first-flight days is a tremendous accomplishment,” Bill said. “This doesn’t happen without excellent teamwork and commitment from all departments and suppliers who support the MSP operation. Congratulations to all of them for a job well done!” During the weekend, MSP also faced a 91% booked load factor on Friday and an 82% load factor on Saturday. Other challenges included a late Boeing 767 from the hangar, with 250 passengers and 198 bags to load in less than 40 minutes, and deicing staff being reassigned from their gate units as snow began to fall at the airport Saturday. “In spite of these challenges, each department of the MSP team came together with a focused determination to achieve this perfect performance,” said Richard Benz, manager-MSP control tower. “Although seemingly a daily occurrence, it is truly remarkable to see so many of our team become so enthusiastic and motivated to provide this outstanding service to our customers. The radios were lighting up across the airport between departments coordinating the necessary actions to overcome each hurdle as it developed. It’s gratifying to witness the level of pride our employees have in their station and this airline.” via Delta News Network No infringement intended

AutoMotorPlex Car Show

A couple weeks ago I visited the Chanhassen AutoMotorPlex for the monthly Cars & Coffee car show. I heard about show via a newspaper at work. The location was designed by a guy who wanted a place to live and store all of his toys. He couldn't find anything like this in the area, so he developed his own. The monthly car show gives tenants and others in the area to bring their cars out and talk shop while they show off their rides. Being a valet and car aficionado, I found this to be a very enjoyable Saturday morning. You can see some puddles in most of the pictures, but let me assure you that these are what remain from an early morning shower and not collections of drool from gawking car guys. Enjoy a sampling here or view the entire album from Facebook.

Tokyo

I know it looks a little goofy jumping from December of last year to September of this year, but there have been some updates between now and then, just not in blog form. This entry needed to be done because I want to be able to
remember this trip years from now.

My trip began on Friday with a flight from MSP to AZO for a family reunion. I got in to the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek airport around 5:15p and had just started connecting my ipod to the airport's free wireless to update my location and check all of my apps when my grandparent's flight from SFB arrived. After renting a car from Avis, we made the short drive to Barbie and Lanny's where my parents we're waiting for us. We had dinner,watched some baseball, and called it a night. The next day at the reunion I got to catch up with cousin Michelle and some other aunts and uncles. It was a fairly small group and the rain showers cut the afternoon short. The food was good as always and I got my olie bollen.

Sunday morning, we got up before the rest of the clan and my parent's dropped me off at the airport. I took the first flight to DTW even though my flight to Tokyo didn't leave until 3pm. I got online again with my ipod to let a few friends know that I was in the airport in case they were flying through. I met up with a former co-worker who worked the ramp in Minneapolis and transferred to Detroit to take a performance supervisor position. (sidebar- he attended Western Michigan for flight school) We chatted briefly about work and flying before he had to go load a flight.

Sometime between 1p and 2p the big planes started arriving and parking on the A concourse. So I went over to snap a few pictures. It's hard to get good pictures at DTW because the windows have tiny dots on the glass to reduce the amount of sunlight that shines through. My flight started boarding about an hour before departure. When I got my boarding pass, I was excited to see that I would be sitting in the upper deck in business class. While we were taxing, it felt weird to be sitting so high off the ground. I think I may have nodded off a couple times while taxing because it took so long and I was still exhausted, but when crew put the coals to the four engines, I was wide awake.

I watched a couple movies when the on demand entertainment system became available. After dinner, I got a few hours of sleep in my eggshell pod seat. These were the same seats used on the A330 that I flew to CDG and AMS so everything was very familiar. I woke up for the pre-arrival meal and watched another movie. It was about 5:30p when we landed.

I went through customs and found the train that would take me downtown. (there are quite a few lines and companies that run service in Tokyo.)It was a little difficult finding an ATM, but after taking out 10,000¥ I bought a ticket at the counter and hustled downstairs to the platform to board. When we got away from the airport, the sun had already set and it was hard to see much out of the windows. I could see buildings in the distance and a few cars when we passed through small towns on our way to Tokyo. The buildings looked very uniform in that there weren't really any flashy lighting schemes. There were lights in the stairwells or at the doors and each was in the same location so from the first floor to the top floor everything was aligned.

I made one train change at Shinagawa Station after the one hour ride on the Narita Express (NEX). I only had to go one more stop on the local train to get close to my hostel. When I got off at the Kita-Shinagawa station, I realized I didn't have directions from that station to the hostel, nor did I have a map. So I took my itinerary with the address and the Japanese translation to a gentleman at a nearby gas station. He didn't really speak English, but he signaled that it was about 3 blocks over. So I headed in that direction about 3 blocks and looked for another person to ask. He took me about half a block up the street right to the door of the hostel.

I checked in and found my room. It was so hot and muggy outside, I was relieved to find a air conditioning unit in my 5'x8' room. The front desk person showed me which buttons to push on the remote because the symbols were all Japanese. Since I only planned to stay one night, they were curious what my plans were. They informed me that the Tsukiji fish market would be closed for a holiday. I was a little disappointed, but wasn't going to let it spoil my trip. I headed back to the Shinagawa Station and then north to

Shibuya to do some sight seeing. The main attraction for me was the busy intersection that was featured in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". At this intersection, the lights from multiple directions stop traffic and pedestrians are allowed to cross all at once.

After taking this in, I walked around to look at some of the shops and find something to eat. I stopped at a nearby sushi bar and had dinner, not because I like sushi, but for the experience. It wasn't bad and I couldn't complain about the price for fresh, authentic sushi. I did a little more walking around before heading back to my hostel to call it a night.

I could only force myself to sleep for about 4 or 5 more hours. It was only about 5am, but the sun was already up. I took a shower and packed my things before checking out around 7. This time I walked to the Shinagawa station to see a little bit more what was around the area. I'm glad I did, but it was about a 10-15 minute walk and it was hotter and more humid than the night before. I took the train north to Tokyo station.

My only plans for the day now were to see the Imperial Palace and find some souvenirs. I needed an ATM again because I was running low on cash. Most places in Tokyo don't take credit or debit cards, especially not US cards. I found a Citibank, but like most stores in the area, they didn't open til 10am. So I went to the Palace first to take pictures. The palace isn't open to the public, but it is still cool to see the gates and the buildings from the outside.

It was still early, but I headed back towards the train station. I wanted to make sure I left myself plenty of time to get to the airport in case I got lost or had any other delays. I just missed the 11am departure so I had to wait for the 12p train. I could see a lot more this time on the train, including the Tokyo Sky Tree. This large telecommunications tower will replace the Tokyo Tower in February 2012. It is already the largest structure in Japan.

When I got to the airport I did most of my souvenir shopping in the airport mall. I went through security and headed to my gate for what I thought would be a pretty routine flight back to MSP. However, it as it got closer and closer to departure time, I still didn't have a seat assignment and the gate agents were working furiously to get as many passengers boarded as possible. When the boarding door closed, I still did not have a boarding pass. I was left behind in disbelief.

The flight to MSP was one of the last of the day so there weren't many options left. I hurried over the the other terminal on the shuttle bus to try getting on an American Airlines flight headed for DFW, but there wasn't time to make a reservation. In my rushed and flustered state, I left behind my wallet on the bus, but didn't realize it until I was nearly through customs with one of the gate agents who was helping me bypass the normal arrival customs processing. So the two of us had to walk all the way back upstairs and wait for the bus driver to come back. Luckily it was returned to me, and I made it back out the front check in area with the help of the Delta gate agent with no further issues.

I went to the Delta counter to purchase some ZED passes for other airlines because the Delta flights to the US were oversold for next couple days also. My first option was a flight at 10:45am to ORD on All Nippon Airways (ANA). The second was an American Airlines flight to DFW that left at 1pm. I took my tickets and found a place to settle for the night in the airport. I was moved around a couple times by the airport police because they didn't want passengers hanging out all over the airport. We were "gently corralled" into a spot down stairs by the arrival meeting area. There were maybe 30 other passengers (not all Delta) who joined me for an evening in the airport. The police/security came around to check every one's passports and make sure we weren't just bums. They kept an eye on us all night, which in a way was somewhat comforting. I didn't sleep great on the marble floor, but it didn't cost me anything. It's all part of the non-rev experience. I had done this only one other time in Toronto.

In the morning I had to wait a while for the ticket counter to open. When I went to check in I realized that I had forgotten a step in the ZED ticketing process. I had paid the fare to Delta, but I hadn't actually created a reservation for the flight with All Nippon yet. Fortunately, the agent was happy to oblige and in about 10 minutes I had a reservation and a seat assignment! No waiting around at the gate! I went through security and found something to eat since I wasn't sure what kind of meal I would receive in coach. I found a Rammen restaurant and got a some noodles and soup. I was surprised to find that the noodles were served cold so I dumped the soup on top and ate the two together. I kind of felt like the tourist at Tulip Time several years back who I saw put the sour kraut meant for the brats on top of his poffertjies. What a doofus!

I was pleased to find that the Boeing 777 that I would be taking to ORD had on demand entertainment in the headrests even in economy class. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive an ample inflight lunch and breakfast. I watched one movie before taking an extended nap.

Shortly after I woke up and ate breakfast, I opened my shade to see numerous Minnesota lakes barely illuminated by the rising sun. About 45 minutes later I was on the ground at O'Hare. I made my way quickly through the customs checkpoint and hopped on the tram to terminal 2. I realized that I would have a chance to make an earlier flight back to MSP than I had planned, so I hurried through security and ran to the gate. I made the change to my flight on my ipod through the non-rev website and boarded soon after. I made it back to MSP around 11am on Wednesday and had the rest of the day to relax. I didn't miss any work because I already had the day covered as a buffer. I didn't feel too jet lagged because I planned my naps accordingly.

The rest of my pictures can be viewed in this album.

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.