Kite Runner & Colorado Mammoth

My goal as you can tell is to see movies! On Friday, I saw Kite Runner. Though I read the book a couple years ago, was simply a beautiful story on the screen, tragic but touching and well done. What another stark reminder of the tragegy in Afghanistan. It was nice to see the movie vision of pre-Soviet invasion. This was actually a good one to see after the light hearted Charlie Wilson's War of the day before. One could debate the ending of the movie to the book, which differs. If you don't get caught up being a movie critic, it's one to see.

Saturday night was the season opener of the Colorado Mammoth National Lacrosse Team in Denver. I have season tickets and have followed this rather offbeat sport for several years now. The cheerleaders enter the arena on Harley Davidson Motorcycles, there are fireworks inside the arena, the game is active and affordable! Tonight the Mammoth won, finally getting their new season/new team act together quite late in the 3rd quarter! http://coloradomammoth.com/

Charlie Wilson's War & Snow

Other than shovel snow the past 24 hours time and time again in Denver, I did venture out to see Charlie Wilson's War tonight. I was pleasantly surprised. I loved Philip Seymour Hoffman, he made the movie for me and he made Tom Hanks look good too. Excessiveness of the '80s no doubt! The movie was witty, entertaining and moved along nicely; as well, quite timely with the tragic death today of Benazir Bhutto, as there is reference to her father in the movie of it's times.

Ok - back to shoveling snow!

Monk, Airport and 192nd flight for 2007

Today celebrated my 192nd flight for 2007, and the last one this year. I drove from Rockford, Iowa to Minneapolis, MN 160 miles through the best of midwest winter to return the Avis rental car. United called me twice while in Minneapolis, MN (lucky me...) to advise my plane had been delayed (shocking). Upon late arrival at Denver's DIA, our gate was occupied so we got put in the penalty box for awhile.

At the bottom of the escalator at the train to the main terminal, in front of me, there was a young man who seemed completely lost, frazzled, tossed his 6 tickets and 2 airline envelopes back and forth, looked both ways at both trains (to C or to Baggage), and I asked him if I could help him when I got down the escalator. Here's what happened in the next hour :) My good samaritan act... He had come from Chicago and on way to San Diego. Luckily his 7:15pm plane was delayed til 11:20pm (United had alot of issues the past few days, many in Denver with weather and flight crews in wrong places). He started at 8am this morning and it was 9:15pm. His bag ended up in Denver, which he apparently had to retrieve and check in again. I said "follow me" to get his bag. He was completely frantic, panic stricken. I just smiled and said "I'll help". My new friend's name is Aaron.

We got off the train, went to the Baggage/Lost Bag Claim office where 10 people were in front of us. Looking at the line, I talked to him and said he should ask to get to the front of the line due to time. He had to find his bag, and go back through security and get back to the later delayed plane. Of course his ticket had the dreaded "SSSS" (meaning "search me a couple times and if I am dumb enough not to know you are going to search me and I have something, send me to jail").

So, he asked me if I would do the talking. Ok - what the heck. What's a few more minutes when it's the last flight of the year? I smiled and asked the line, "Is anyone else here catching a plane in an hour tonight or are your bags just lost or something"? :) Everyone did laugh, and my new friend Aaron moved to the front of the line. I then went to look to make sure his plane still was delayed and at what gate it might be leaving. I came back to announce it was still late, which was a good thing, and the crowd cheered for Aaron.

At the bag counter, no bag. The nice man took 12 minutes looking for a bag in the back and said "did you look around carosels 12 through 16 as we haven't had time to store bags". Ok, I ask Aaron "What color is your bag". You got it - "it's black" (oh joy...........that will be easy ;). We look another 12 minutes and poof - he finds the bag. We race up to checkin for simply checking a bag. The time is now 9:53pm. Aaron says "I am a monk from a monastery in Zurich. I don't do this, it is so hard so thank you, thank you". (I don't think my jaw dropped but it might have been close. He didn't exactly have a robe on.)

At the bag check kiosk, Aaron discovers he is booked on 3 flights and the fabulous automated checkin thinks he's actually leaving January 5, 2008! Amazing. We cannot get a bag check ticket from this machine. I get on the phone with United, talk to a real person at the kiosk and she says "find a real person at the airport". Of course the real person I found was a fake real person as he shrugged his shoulders and said "go wait in that line for that lady". Not good. So I send Aaron to one line and I get to another line that looks sorta like it might happen. Jackpot! We get an opening. A NICE person with empathy and looking out for the customer in us travelers! Aaron gets his bag to the bag mover at 10:15pm.

What I forgot to mention is that Yes, I wanted to be going home to shovel the 10 inches of snow in my yard. Alas, I had to see this through and walked Aaron to the security line. He hugged me, gave me his email, and invited me to a fabulous tour of the monastary when I am next in Zurich, Switzerland. He did tell me I was truly an Angel as a monk is not used to this sort of thing and it was very hard for him to figure all this out. Now I have 2 reasons to get to Zurich (Nicole and Aaron)! I think this is the link to the monestary - seems very popular!

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsiedeln_Abbey

Furs from the Family

Going through the family pictures and scanning them was one activity on Christmas Day in Iowa. Here are a couple great shots. The first is my Grandmother on my Dad's side - Ida, about 1922. Check out those boots! Yes, at first glance I am her granddaughter. On my Mother's side, Great Aunt Marie and her flashy pose on the car in her fox furs, 1924! The third image is my mother on the left with her mother, Nelle, in her Seal Coat, which we just put in the group rummage sale box, 1953. The last is 1924 as well of the group with 4 ladies in fox.

Christmas Eve - Cousins & Fire at Breitbach's Country Dining

I have been in Iowa the past couple days. We celebrated Christmas Eve with several of the cousins at my parents home in Iowa. Now I have to figure out how to put captions on these pictures!








Breitbach's Country Dining, in Balltown, Iowa was destroyed by fire last night, Christmas Eve. This was a very sad ending to the bar and food establishment known as the oldest bar and restaurant. Six generations of family in an original stagecoach stop. Gone. The pictures are classic Iowa. The entire community revolved around this historic establishment. Slides are in the URL link. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071224/MULTIMEDIA/71001037

Atonement, No Country for Old Men & I Am Legend

Being in Denver the past couple days, I had to catch up on the blast of new movies. What a couple of different movies to see back to back! Atonement, well, it was hard to understand some of the language/accents or maybe it was the theater. it was visually appealing with great film and image transitions. For me, it wasn't "The Movie" of the year. Then tonight I went to see I Am Legend. Once I got over the zombie shocker and the love of the cute dog, it was ok too - not fabulously great. There are many things going on here, probably too many for the dramatic beginning. The plot is a bit farfetched. I liked No Country for Old Men the best by far. Completely different from the other two, but the best of three for me :)

Harrisburg Cab Driver aka A No Starbucks Day

After my appointment today, my cab driver did the usual, "so where are you going and where are you from" conversation. We talked about the weather a little in Denver and Harrisburg. I had just done all my talking for the day from 7:30am EST to 1:30pm EST and all withOUT Starbucks, and only "Bunn-o-Matic Bank Coffee" - you can imagine my mood!

So, to let him talk, all I did was ask my cab driver in Harrisburg, PA, that simple question, "so how is your day going"? And here's what I got: Not bad - it's a holiday you know. It's Eid ul-Adha, on which feasts are held to celebrate. It is after the end of the month of Ramadan. It changes every year with the difference in our calendars. We're doing alot of celebrating. My sister in Dallas and they have 10,000 people at their center in Dallas working on festivities.

I am from Kuwait and I'm a Palestinian - you know, the bad guys (he says with a smirk and a smile in the rearview mirror). I smile....(what else am I to do?) I asked, "what brought you to Harrisburg?" He says, "bad luck".... (oh boy, this is going nowhere fast, I think to myself.) He came to Texas originally as someone told him it would be good. He got there, and it was just like Kuwait as it was flat, hot, same climate all the time like the desert, beautiful people with money, boring. So he moved to Harrisburg on advice of another friend.

I ask how large is the celebration in Harrisburg for the holiday. Then he starts talking to me about getting the sheep prepared for sacrifice. He tells me the pilgrimage to Mecca is funny as Mecca is so small, and going to Mecca when you are too old then you get hurt instead of going when you are younger, and on and on....and finally, he asks - What airline today? :)

Wave bye! See ya later Harrisburg!Yes, the deicer guy was cute, the airplane is missing something and yes, is at the end of the runway as planes make the turn for takeoff :) Oh, and the plane goes right over the reactors, and yes, it's bumpy - confidence instilling!

MDT aka Hershey and Harrisburg, PA

Not a commonly remembered airport code, MDT. So where is it? Harrisburg, PA. How do you get there? Well, from Denver, I went US Scareways to Philadelphia, then Harrisburg, PA and stayed at the lovely Hilton Garden Inn. Harrisburg is the capital of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Hersheypark.

On March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, along the Susquehanna River located south of Harrisburg, suffered a partial meltdown.

Hershey was originally named Derry Church, Pennsylvania. It was renamed Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1906 after the growing popularity of Hershey's Chocolate. It is popularly called Chocolatetown, USA.

Luckily no big travel stories today, as I fondly remember San Diego and arrive in Harrisburg, the last business hotel of the year! (Please Marjorie, just say NO to 12/28, please :)))

San Diego Morning: Legs & Lobbies

On my early morning Legs and Lobbies tour of the immediate boardwalk area in front of the Marriott & Grand Hyatt in San Diego, I noticed along with the crisp 45 degree weather(see Valets at Hyatt in warm gear below), that there really are alot of nice looking local men hanging out in San Diego when all the convention people are not present! As I walked along the boardwalk south toward the Marriott, I had fond memories of friends and coworkers and watching the Red Bull Air Races in September with Judy and Don, Eric, and Marjorie (along with all the other things we did that week). The thing I noticed was the air was calm, the ocean was calm and it was actually quiet! I was distracted as I did my morning walk to see all the pairs of legs attached to good looking men running around the area. Coast Guard, Fire Rescue. It motivated me to walk those stairs up and down and up and down :)


I decided to tour the hotels "off convention" and did a quick review of the Marriott and the Grand Hyatt. I was completely disappointed in their Christmas decorations. The Marriott loses on all counts. Note the temporary lobby in the North Tower and the pathetic decorations. Apparently there is a giant lobby renovation going on, including the Roy's in the front of the hotel which I can confirm is under construction. On my tour of the Grand Hyatt, I search the lower level and mezz level for a big tree or something, and found the pictures attached below.

Seg Whore Update, Turtle Town & San Diego Bay Parade of Lights

Seg Whore Wins! For those of you wondering, yes, I made it! Today was my 100th segment on United, thus 1K Status for 2008 complete! Thank you Marjorie for making it happen! (And I did make Alaska Gold and Frontier's program too....in case you were wondering...) I'm around 185 or 190 segs this year, and I only have 7 more segments left to fly this year, the countdown is on! As for hotel programs, I have made my "goal" on those as well this year, except for the fabulous WeHo location of the Hotel Careyfornia. Alas, my status might be dropped to DIRT next year if I cannot get the hotel program to extend my 2008 qualifications through 6/30/2008. (I'm sure if I write the hotel a letter, they will certainly extend my Platinum Status (was hoping for Emerald again this year, oh well). The customer service department must understand the trials and tribulations of the business traveler. Stay Tuned...)

As for Turtle Town, it's in the grand lobby of The Embassy Suites San Diego Bay, San Diego, CA. (Located across the street from the Grand Hyatt). I have never seen a Turtle Town in any Embassy Suites I have stayed in. Quite amazing, especially now that the turtles (6 of them seen tonight) have a green light in their Turtle Cave in honor of the holiday season. They must have a 1/4 mile of water canal for the turtles to swim in as well! All decorated in festive holiday colors. I assume some of my fans have seen this sight and considered it to be a stop on the agenda for our annual convention of course.

Other area attractions in San Diego were delightfully colored in the Holiday Spirit. The "wrenches" were green and red, the ship was decorated with red, white and green lighting, and many other popular spots were decked out in the season's color. I had a late dinner outside on the deck, at The Fish Market, http://www.thefishmarket.com/locations.aspx?id=6, a popular spot in the Harbor . While there, I was fortunate enough to see the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights in it's final hour from 7:45pm to conclusion. Yo Ho HO was the theme for 2007. I might have to make this an annual event! http://www.sdparadeoflights.org/

And this picture, way in the background, are the "wrenches" in green and red for the holidays! My friend Carey called to offer some consulting on my pictures and picture placement. It's something I'll research more after the holiday. Thanks for the blogsulting, Carey! Of course, if I were Carey, I would have raced to the top of the Grand Hyatt for a much more fabulous view of the picture, used a real camera (instead of my cell phone), and zoomed in and photoshopped it or something - alas, I didn't :)

Blossom of Lights Denver

Friday night 8 of us gathered for the 19th Annual Blossom of Lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens for an evening tour of lights, followed by dinner at Racine's in Denver. (Temperature at 6pm, was 18 degrees for the tour, now at 10pm for 8.8 degrees.) The Blossom of Lights presents over 1 million lights on various trees and bushes in the walking tour of the garden. We got one pair of 3D glasses for $1 to be shared by 8 people, and it was the best $1 spent! The glasses made snowmen out of the lights, and the snowmen actually danced (the faster you moved your head, body :) A waxing crescent moon was present as the snow falling over past 24 hours was clearing out tonight.

Musical holiday sounds heard while strolling through the gardens included "Ye Wanton Wenches" and Accordian Accompanist, Ron Tomocik. This is not a joke, very true, and what more could one ask to complete the workweek :)

http://www.botanicgardens.org/pageinpage/blossomsoflight.cfm The pictures show a number of bundled up friends enjoying the cold evening festivities.

If you are still reading, what I really do not understand is how to display the pictures where I want to display them, as opposed to where blogger.com wants to display them. Back to the blogger.com home page to search! Happy Holidays!

Tappahannock, VA & B Movie Quality Starbucks

You know you are in trouble when the nearest Starbucks is the one in the Target in Mechanicsville, VA, but it is the only Starbucks in the "reasonable to get to area" on your way to Tappahannock, VA to a presentation. Target Starbucks are truly the "B Grade Movie" of Starbucks. It's just not satisfying, even the coffee they get must be B Grade .... Had there been more time and not so much work, I imagine the campus at I'll be nice and stop here, it is the "season"!

For those following my breakfast story this week, a bright side to the breakfast morning today was that the nice young man at the hotel restaurant said "well, Miss (he did not use "Ma'am" thought I feared he might....), I can get you just an egg and toast for less than the buffet price (buffet has been out since 6:30am and it's 9:45am....). I had simply asked "can I order off the menu" and not asked for a "discount". So I ordered an omelet with mushroom and LOTS of Cheddar cheese (not touched by human fingers in my presence), over 1 piece of whole wheat toast. The young waiter charged me $1.84, and I started laughing.......Needless to say he got a big tip this morning :) And THAT was the highlight of my 24 hours in Richmond to Tappahannock :)


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DoubleTree Richmond, VA & Glass of Wine

No, there is really no reason to make this a stop on your tour in this area. I have confirmed this :) Perhaps downtown Richmond is much more interesting, but when you fly into an airport late at night, I might consider driving a bit "next time" :) The bar "Wings" was open, and after asking the waitress about a wine list, she recited in her best English with Croatian accent the wine list. Finally I asked, 'what is the best, priciest glass of red wine you have?' I got an $8 glass of Kendall Jackson Cab.....................and a fruit fly or two :) Wherewillibetomorrow!

Room Service Seattle Hotel Monaco

While in Seattle this week, Monday morning, I ordered room service for breakfast. This particular hotel served "between 7 and 7:30am" earliest order time. I needed to be in lobby at 7:30am to meet business associates. At 6:50am, I called the front desk to inquire if my breakfast might be there closer to 7am than 7:30, and got "no problem Ms. Fitz". At 7:07am, Isaac called to advise they were out of vegetarian sausage and wheat bread, so what else would I like. I indicated "bagel, 2 pieces of cheddar cheese, eggs" and that would be fine. At 7:17am, Andy showed up with the room service order. As Andy is walking out the door, I say "Andy, where is the cheddar cheese?". Andy says, "Oh. I will be right back in 3 minutes with the cheese". I don't threaten him, but I do strongly suggest that I am leaving the room at 7:28am to meet my business associates in the lobby so hurrying would be really good. Yes I already tipped him :) At 7:24am, Andy races to my door, knocks. I open the door. My jaw drops with a horrified look on my face. Andy has a huge smile on his face, and personally has selected in his two ungloved fingers 2 pieces of cheddar cheese, and presents them to me, very proudly. In the other hand, he has a small white place with lace paper dollie the cheese was sitting on, all uncovered on it's ride from the basement kitchen to the 7th floor through the public elevators where Andy pushed the elevator button, and knocked on my door and who knows what else with those hands............ There are many things I should have said, but I was so shocked, I simply said "I cannot believe you are handing me 2 pieces of cheese with your bare ungloved hands and the cheese isn't covered. Take the cheese and go" - something like that.

I call the front desk, where Claire is shocked as well. Claire calls someone and someone else calls someone after I indicate "I am NOT paying for the breakfast". What did Andy's mother teach him??????

Later that night, after my arrival in my room, Anthony the Senior Staff member, knocks on my door with bottle of wine and macaroons with appologies about Andy. (I actually hoped Andy was not fired that day but ....). Come to find out, Andy is 20, just got the job, very excited, must have been thinking about whatever 20 year olds think about at 7:24am in the morning, and saw himself in slow motion as he was giving me the cheese with his bare hands that this was not the right thing to do..................I told Anthony thank you, and that I hoped Andy learned something from this experience in life to take with him for his future :)

Disco Ball Tree & Seattle

Spotted near the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), dining at the Wild Orchid Restaurant, then gazing at the Disco Ball Holiday Tree at the Hotel Monaco, were these fabulous stars (Kimberly King and Chris Allen) and Disco Ball Holiday Tree Ornaments. http://www.monaco-seattle.com/ A few of the ornament pictures are here below. I found myself looking for John Travolta in a white suit! Pictures from this Motorola Q - no doubt a reason to update to a new cell phone sooner rather than later :) No, the blog from phone thing isn't happening yet, Carey, but I have tried!

The Tour of Trees Passport annual event is not to be missed. Certainly worth a 2 minute stop in the lobby of the Hotel Monaco, especially during the wine tasting from 5 to 6pm in the evening.
The disco ball spins and calls for a rendition of Disco Inferno as you gaze at the tree!

Last sighting, since Obama is in Seattle tomorrow, was the person driving this car making a statement about Mitt? Was the person thinking he/she is the only one in Washington ever to go to MIT? or what?

Saltimbanco, TPA and other Exotic places

What a week, I'm not a real blogger as I cannot do this daily :) Here are the highlights that I remember from where I was yesterday and the day before and the days before that...






Saturday, Sarabeth and I went to Saltimbanco, the oldest touring Cirque du Soleil show, and it was fabulous! Great front row seats and what a view to see the performers expressions so close. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/saltimbanco/intro/intro.htm


Monday it was off to Tampa, FL to stay at the Westin Harbour Island (oh and work with Stevie G. the sales person in that territory. I got in quite late, took a walk and wandered the streets with the warm weather at the newly remodeled and up and coming downtown area of Tampa, FL. Harbour Island is a "must go back" stop. The Westin, Marriott, Embassy Suites all within yards of each other, water views though the harbor, sea kayaks, sports arena, convention center, huge muscle yacht boats, a nice private gym, and what more can a girl want? Starbucks!

Steve Gaglio, the Italian Romeo Stallion, Steve Goodwin and I had dinner, shared jokes and stories, and watched the hockey game. Earlier Tuesday, I had seen the hockey players when they stayed at The Westin and finally figured out they were the hockey team due to all the people in line wanting autographs.





Speaking of other exotic places, name this airport with these picture clues below! Where can you get a Mojito when you get off the plane at the gate, a cuban coffee and Chivas ads of size?







Ok - I gotta figure out the picture thing. These pictures were all from my cell phone camera emailed to me to post to the blog.....amateur!