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A good travel story

We were flying home from New Orleans to Denver … via Washington DC. No amount of begging, pleading or whining could get United to put us on the direct New Orleans to Denver flight. At one point they said for $200 they would put us on the waitlist. So we showed up at the airport and asked to fly standby. They said no, because the direct flight to Denver was 30 minutes after the DC flight. Argh.  But then, while we are sitting at the gate waiting for the DC flight, they page us, and give us vouchers for free roundtrip tickets and confirmed seats on the direct Denver flight! Turns out the Washington DC flight was overbooked and up until then nobody had realized that we would have been happy to help them out with that problem. We would have done it for free but we’re delighted with the free ticket vouchers.

Home four hours early with free tickets for our next vacation.

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Let people talk about you.

Let people talk about you. It’s free advertising.

I saw some cool art in the French Quarter yesterday. I would have posted a picture so that you could see it and maybe decide to buy it. But the artist wouldn’t let me take a picture of her art.

Did she think I could copy it? Did she think I could get a good enough picture to frame the picture instead of buying the painting?

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Let’s just build condos in the airport

Today’s USA Today says there are now medical clinics and pharmacies in airports for travelers. Because they spend so much time in the airport and they aren’t allowed to carry syringes and the like. While we are at it, why don’t we just build some condos, daycares, grocery stores, … Then we could just go through security once, when we’re born – well actually if you’re born in the airport hospital, you’ve already passed security – anyways, we’d live in a security zone. We’d eat with plastic knives and forks, go to the doctor for routine shots because you can’t own your own syringes, knit with plastic needles, buy all cosmetics in 2 ounce sizes (no need to store the bigger sizes from Sam’s), buy your vegetables precut, no cars because I’m sure you could build a bomb out of one (think of all that money you’d save in gas!), … but you’d be safe!

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Why do working moms always feel guilty?

I am supposed to be excited that I’m going to the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans this weekend. But I’m not. Because right now I’m sitting in a hotel room for the 3rd week in a row and I have another business trip next week. So instead of being excited, I’m feeling guilty that I will only see the kids on Thursday this week. It’s a good thing we had a good weekend together last week!

I read this article in the Washington Post today about moms who go back 60% or 80% in order to spend more time with their kids. After a Baby, Full Time or Part?

It all makes me wonder how you even measure it. I suppose what I’m really measuring is how much enjoyment I’m missing. Because I’m sure Caleb is ok and happy. He loves day care and he loves Daddy. And while I’m sure he misses me, when I get home, we always have to reiterate that we don’t have cookies for breakfast. (Frank says they never have cookies for breakfast but Caleb lets me know that’s what he expects!)

And do Dads feel guilty? Because 99% of them go back full time! (I actually think women are lucky that it’s more acceptable for them to work part-time or stay at home.)

Luckily for me, I don’t usually travel this much and my normal work/life balance – work Mon-Thurs with an occasional business trip – is one I enjoy and Frank and the kids seem to do alright with.

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Studying babies is hard

Life with Caleb, my 19 month old, can be really frustrating these days. We spent 15 minutes listening to babbling screams last night before we figured out he wanted a straw! A straw.

Well, researchers have the same trouble. These researchers were trying to figure out if babies younger than 9 months have the concept of "object permanence" or is it really "out of sight, out of mind." They were stumped because if they put an object under a cloth, if when the removed the cloth, the object was gone, babies would stare longer than if the object was there. Implying that they knew something should still be there. The researchers concluded, very inconclusively, that babies do know the object should be there. They just don’t reach for it because then they’d have to figure out that removing the cloth would show the object. Huh? I think researchers know as little about communicating with babies as the rest of us.

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iPhone is replacing laptops, not phones

I’ve been waiting for my cell phone and my laptop to merge. I want something much more powerful than my cell phone but much smaller than my laptop. Devices like the Nokia n80 and the iPhone are coming close. So I found this curious: a new study says that the iPhone is replacing more laptops than cell phones. A third of iPhone owners carry a cell phone too! Many of them Blackberry owners who like the Blackberry keyboard to send email with. The study implied that those iPhone users read the mail on the iPhone and answer it on their Blackberry. That sounds a bit crazy to me – definitely an opportunity for either the iPhone or the Blackberry.

Most importantly for seeing where the iPhone could go – a quarter of iPhone users no longer carry their laptop with them.