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!