Slow it down!

I believe it's finally time to get this fall season slowed down. November is knocking on the door, and it's kinda scary! I believe that as of right now I've wrapped up my soccer refereeing season. Of course, there are always the possible "Hey we need a fill in right away" calls but I'm happy that things are much slower now, and that I can focus on other things, such as getting packed and moving. Hard to believe that it's already time for that! Moving day is going to be November 11 to get things in and our of houses and into the new! It's quite exciting. First house, and it's going to be all mine. Well, it's going to be all Heather's and I get to live in it (to be technically correct if I understand the whole marriage thing.) I've been told that what's hers is hers and what's mine is hers. I don't think she's a reader of this, so hopefully I don't get in too hot of water on that. Either that, or she'll be the first to tell you whose in charge here!

Work is finally getting a bit more slow. After a busy season of travel and being on the road, that's looking quite good for the end of the year, which is good, after my last Delta fiasco!

I was in Montana last week, and was getting set to travel home on Friday afternoon. Thursday afternoon, I went to check in on my flights, and had a message waiting that a flight of mine had been cancelled. I quickly called in to get re-booked, and was told that I'd been re-booked for the next day, Saturday. I had soccer games on Saturday, so I said that I couldn't do that, and they offered me a new route, to go through Salt Lake City, then to Minneapolis, then Sioux Falls. I was happy with this, and accepted. I'm going to preface this with saying if you ever get offered the opportunity to fly into Salt Lake City, DON'T DO IT! Avoid it if at all possible. So, I ended up getting to Salt Lake City around 1pm, and had 50 minutes to catch my flight to Minneapolis, so I went to the gate, and they had posted that we were delayed 1 hour because of a backup in Minneapolis. So, we were now not scheduled to leave until 3pm. It was ok, because that still left me with over an hour to make my connection to Sioux Falls, so no biggie. So, the plane came in around 1:30pm, and just sat at the gate waiting for us to get on. We sat in the terminal, and all of the sudden, and 20 minutes to 3pm, they come on the intercom and tell us we have to hurry and board before 3pm, or we cannot leave. What on earth have we been doing for the last 30 minutes?? The plane has been here, couldn't you have us on it already?? So, we tried to quickly board around 150 people in under 20 minutes. We happened to get everyone on the plane and ready before 3pm, and we sat there, and sat there, and sat there, and pretty soon it was 3:30, and then 3:45 and they came back on the PA system and told us that the flight had been cancelled and was reschedule for 6am the next morning (the crew was out of hours apparently). So, we all got back off the plane, and I headed to a courtesy phone and got rebooked on the later Minneapolis flight which would still put me in in time to make my connection. So, I got that all changed, and went to the gate to find that the late Minneapolis flight was delayed 2.5 hours. So much for making my connection, but they said that I could go to the gate in Minneapolis, and try to see if I could stand by and get a seat onto that late flight, otherwise, I'd be stuck until the next day. So, we waited, and as boarding time got close, they announced another delay of 45 minutes. We ended up getting into Minneapolis around 11pm, and there were two agents waiting there who handed us pieces of paper with 800 numbers for getting a service to book us a hotel at our expense. Yes, they would not pay for this. That made a few people rather angry, and then, to top it off, the agents didn't stay to offer help, they just said, "Good Luck." and took off! We found only one other agent who told us she was off the clock and would not help us. So, we're stuck in Minneapolis, and I called the 800 number and they hung up on me. Needless to say, I was unimpressed and sent an email to Delta explaining this and asking them why I should ever consider flying their airline again? I made it home around 9am Saturday, well, home to Sioux Falls anyway, and missed my game, so, I wrapped up my season on Sunday. Delta is not real popular with me currently, so it's a good thing that I don't have to travel soon!

Big Sky Country

Greetings from Montana! I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here in Missoula. It's been a busy week already. I have been in some training courses the past couple of days, and have another day tomorrow, with a slight twist. I'm going to be leading a short session! I've been asked to give a demonstration on one of our web applications that is quite friendly and easy to use. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity! This wasn't planned, in fact, they told me as I was walking out the door this evening, but nonetheless, I'm excited for it. Thursday and Friday more training, and then fly home Friday afternoon. I checked, and my Skymiles status automatically requested my upgrade to first class for me. I'm hopeful! The only way I don't get it is if someone else flat out bought a first class seat, or a Gold, Platnium or Diamond member is in front of me on the list for an upgrade. Otherwise, 2 hours and 45 minutes of first class again! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I went out for some exercise tonight. For those of you that have never been to Missoula, it's great here! It's basically a small valley surrounded by mountains. They are small mountains, but mountains none the less. I can see a couple of snow caps from my room. Also here is the University of Montana. On the side of a mountain right on campus, there is a big M in the side of the hill. There is a trail that you can climb to the top and get a great view of the city. Tonight, after getting back to the hotel, I changed quick and headed to the M. It's about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, and it did provide one amazing view!

Sticking it to Menards

Well, I will soon be sticking it back to Menards. Here is the brutal story of the my attempting to buy a washer and dryer. One day, when I was in Menards just after purchasing my house, I found a washer and dryer marked way down to $499. My mom had forbidden me from buying any appliances or carpeting without an expert female opinion. So, I went and got my expert female opinion, and came back and tried to purchase this pair, as it was about $260 savings from regular price. I went to the register, and got the total, and was unable to pay because of the refusal to take my credit card. No, it wasn't a limit being over, it was that they didn't take the card. So, I had to wait until payday, which was 2 days away. So, I went back Friday evening, and again tried to buy this washer and dryer, and this time, they were having trouble and I couldn't pay with my debit card. So, once again, failure. The following day, the final day of the sale, I went in and found the price slightly lower at $494 each. I went to pay, and they allowed me to write a check. Finally, got the washer and dryer. Today, I'm here in Sioux Falls, and stopped at Best Buy, and went into the appliance section, and found my same washer and dryer pair, for $80 cheaper than what I paid for mine. I called Menards, and they said they would not compete for that price, and would give me nothing back. So, I asked what happened if I brought my receipt in, and returned them. The answer was that there was no issue with that, so I bought a second washer dryer pair, saving $160, and got to stick it to Menards in the process. The best part, they took my credit card on the first try! See, it is possible to go to Best Buy and save money!!

Which way is up?

It's been one whirlwind of a week again. I'm sitting here now wondering which direction is even up anymore. It's been nearly a perfect storm this week. Work has gotten crazy, and all of the sudden, having to prepare to be gone next week is slightly more difficult when you are missing two people from the team this week. The house work has started to really pick up as this week was finalize inspection week and get measurements for any improvements and deal with the bank and the paperwork they have to go through for the loans. So far, Tuesday night for 2 hours and tonight for an hour there are house things to address, and with around 55 hours or work this week, plus a volleyball game that was on Monday, plus two soccer games coming up this weekend, and my flight leaving on Friday, I half way expect to meet myself coming or going here sooner or later. I'm wonder when all this settles down, because the wedding planning and moving and holidays are right around the corner. If I could triplicate myself, I'd be in good shape...

Denver, is that you calling??

I was told yesterday to book plans to spend a week in Montana, and you know what city lies en route to Missoula, MT?? And, I'm going to Minneapolis instead. Haha! That's right, I'm going to stick it to Denver this time, or at least I think I am. I'm going for some new software training and will be gone for a week. I did look at going through Denver, but opted for Delta to finish off my sliver medalian status. Yeah, I'm a real frequent flyer now!!

Soccer Cold - Volleyball Long

Well, I'm getting ready to head out again for the weekend, and wouldn't you know, the weather calls for snow. Yes, snow. 37 is the high for Sunday, which means I'll be out in the freezing cold trying to referee a soccer game and survive 90 minutes. Ohh yeah, and Saturday would include a trip to Iowa. Yay. Well, not much I can do about that, I just go where I'm sent. Hopefully, as some of my coffee shop friends believe, Iowa is indeed warmer since it's much colder in SD (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this post - An Iowa Story. I can cling to that hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well, one thing that I witness last night that I'd hardly believe if I didn't see it was one of the longest volleyball sets I've ever seen. I've not watched much college volleyball, but last night was high school, and I got to watch Heather's team win in 4 sets. The 4th set final was 34-32. Yes, they only play to 25, however, winning by two came into play so we kept going and going and going. Now, I don't talk about officiating and don't complain about it much, but last night was not good for the fraternity of officials. Sadly, the officiating made a major impact on this game. Both officials were either inexperienced, or just having a really bad night, but it was evenly bad for both teams. I don't have a lot of sympathy on volleyball officials because of how little effort it really takes to referee volleyball. In soccer, you have to make decisions on the run on a 120 yard field as players are running each other over for a ball. In volleyball, the floor officials covers what, 10 feet back and forth? It was sad for as much money as they make that they weren't better. It is difficult to lose games like that, but sometimes it can be just as bad to win games that way too. I told Heather to be sure and tell the girls to never put me through a stressful night like that again!

It's Final!

If you heard from me, or from someone via the grapevine, or from facebook, then you've found the right place. This one is indeed true, I am truly engaged. My girlfriend Heather and I were engaged last night at 11:10 pm. Instead of telling all of you individually, I'll relate the story now.

This actually goes back a couple of weeks to my last time in Iowa. I don't believe I've mentioned on here that my company recently merged with another company from Houston, TX. This happened a week ago today, and was meet with some slight anxiety as the future was quite uncertain. My first move was to email Heather and let her know. She was immediately encouraging telling me it didn't matter what happened that she would be there for me and support me no matter what. I knew immediately that it was time, so I went to my trusty phone and ordered the ring immediately. That was one week ago.

Last night, I had an open evening as Heather was gone a long distance for volleyball. I ran to Sioux Falls to pick up the ring that we'd picked out a month earlier, and brought it back to Mitchell. As Heather was coming home, I convinced her to come and look at the house that I purchased earlier this week. Ohh, I think I forgot to mention that on her also. I bought a house. More with that later. So, I went and picked Heather up in the cold, and we went to look at what we'd already agreed was going to make great home for us some day. It was there, at 11:10 pm that I asked her to marry me. She readily accepted and was ecstatic to finally get her ring.

Now, the FAQs:

~How did you meet? We met through a mutual friend (thanks Char!!!)
~Did you ask her father first? Yes, I called him and talked to him on the trip to Sioux Falls and he was supportive of our decision
~Did you get down on your knee? I told her I certainly would do that, but she said that it wasn't necessary
~What did you say? I don't really remember all of it (plus, that's personal!)
~Did she know it was coming? She knew it was at some point, but not last night until it was happening
~Did you know she was going to say yes? Yes I was positive
~How long have you been dating? We started going out in March
~When is the wedding? We are not commenting at this time
~Where is the wedding? Minnesota
~Who did you tell first? We both called our parents last night, and immediate family earlier today
~What is the reaction? Lots of excitement for both of us and lots of support and advice for the two of us!