My flight home Friday night was delayed by a little over an hour. (Or at least, we boarded a little over an hour late...then we sat on the tarmac for about 20-30 minutes waiting to be de-iced...)
The explanation that the passengers were given for the delay was not that there was bad weather in Seattle, not that there was bad weather in Oakland, and not even that there had been bad weather at the airport our plane was coming from. The explanation also had nothing to do with mechanical failures, flying monkeys, or any other logical reason for delay.
Nope. We were told, and I quote:
"Your flight has been delayed for approximately one hour because your pilot has expired."
Our pilot had what? What was he, some sort of dairy product? A perishable vegetable?
When the passengers were VISIBLY confused, the gate attendant explained. Apparently, due to delays and bad weather in previous days, our pilot had been in the cockpit for the maximum number of hours allowed by the FAA. This meant, that by the time our flight came up, even though the airline was back on schedule, it was illegal for him to transport us until he had accrued a certain number of rest hours. Most of the other available pilots had also maxed out or, as the airline put it, expired. We had to just wait until a "fresh" pilot was available.
hahaha...that's funny. Guess they should come up with a better statement when talking to the public. Happy New Year Sweets! Glad you made it back to us safely!
I made it into SeaTac last night at 11:45. Mindy's flight was delayed, and so we didn't make it home till 4ish. It is great to be home though.
So...here are some reasons I'm grateful to be here:
1. I get to see Mindy who I haven't seen since June. (I am pretty sure I said good-bye to her at the Fisher's house.) And, like many Christmases Past, we are sharing the double bed in the guest room!
2. I get to see my parents, brother, and sister-in-law. I also get to see most of the rest of the family, including my cousin Jake who is in the Navy now.
3. There is SNOW!!!! I get to wear the snow boots I bought to wear on Halloween as Abby...they are actually being used for the purpose for which they were intended.
4. Mom and Dad have the tree up...although, it is bereft of any of our childhood ornaments since Nath, Mindy, and I all have our own ornaments at our own homes. (Or, in my case in a lovely storage unit in Dublin.)
5. The Christmas music of my childhood is playing in the background. Nothing gives me the holiday spirit like "Christmas in Killarney" by Bing Crosby.
6. No School + No Work = LOTS OF KNITTING TIME!!!
7. I get to have my haircut. My hairdresser/friend is coming into the shop on Friday just for me. I am loved. (Although, it isn't totally unreasonable for me to expect her to make some accommodation for me since I travel many many many miles to get to her!)
Isn't "home" great?! I'm loving being in Oregon with my family and taking part in all the traditions. Honestly, it's just great sitting here on the couch... just being here :)
I have been going to a lot of parties lately...holiday parties, going away parties, ornament exchanges...so here are some photos from my life.
With Kurt at Kurt's Chrismahannakwanzaka Party Looking Festive
With Kianne and Kurt at same party
With Jen and Lauren at Brittany's going away party...wearing the scarf I designed for the Twilight premiere.
Kati Higgins being creative with the ornament I took to the ornament exchange.
So that is three of the parties...I have another one tonight with the young folk from church...and one with my WHOLE family on Christmas Eve...and a little one with my immediate family and Judy and the Comptons on Christmas...and a work party at the library on Saturday...and a New Year's Eve party at my house on NYE...
Oh, and I got my grades back for the quarter...4.0! YAY!!!
And I am very excited to be with my family in two days. Any of you able to brave the snow and be at Bremerton Wednesday night, I will be there!
I think I would wear them again - they stay put all day because they "stirrup" right under your foot! Now all we need is those body suits to come out again too... haha! :)
oh no! Well, they say if you wore a style the first time it was around, then you're too old to wear them again. Guess that means stirrup pants are out for me!! Good thing! :)
The kids want you to know that we went to the Book Fair at school. All four now own a new book. Rylee got "Dora and the Snow Princess". Megan got the exact same book that they read today in her kindergarten class!!! That made her very excited. It is Jan Brett's "The Gingerbread Baby". Ross got "The Tale of Desperoux", or something like that. You know, the movie version will start about Christmas Day. Maddie got "The Puppy Place - Princess", as well as one of those beaded bookmarks.
Maddie works in the library. So, I had to ask if she was a good worker. They said she was. The library workers had to ask Maddie's siblings if she was a good big sister. They said she was. :)
Prior to assigning your darling students a research project on an obscurely small and specific tribe of Native Americans that requires them to cite at least 3 different BOOK sources, please check to make sure that 3 books have even been written on that particular tribe. It would make my job A LOT easier. Parents just can't understand why I don't have 3 books on the Weminuche or the Wampanoag on my shelf. Is there a reason why you, as a group, seem to avoid assigning the tribes on which I actually HAVE materials, such as the Cherokee, Navajo, and Iroquois? Just curious.
Thank you for your consideration of my complaint. I know you can't ALL really be in cahoots to make my Tuesday horrible.
I had a similar complaint tonight. Maddie had a list of words that she was suppose to look up in the dictionary and write their meanings. So, Maddie can't find the word 'finally'. To a 4th grader, this is a difficult problem. I explain that she should try finding a smaller word in the word and look that up. So, we looked up 'final'. At the end of the entry it mentions that 'finally' is an adverb. That's not good enough for Maddie. She says, "But the teacher wants a meaning!" I took care of what she should write down. But I also wanted to tell Mrs. Hannah that perhaps she should actually do the assignment herself and discover what issues the students would run into. I think you would agree...
Hmm, Weminuche Indians. I wouldn't imagine that you would have much there. You would probably have to look for books on Colorado History which probably would not be on your shelves. However, I think that I could find three books that at least mention the Wampanoag :-) Squanto was a Wampanoag. However, I totally agree it is important for a teacher to make sure that information is available for an assignment.
