Come fly away with me... three hours late

Let me start things off by making a bold declaration: O'Hare sucks. Okay, so that isn't that bold, but it's sure as hell true. In the past two-plus weeks, Stacey and I have flown to or from that airport five times, and only once has the plane been on-time. Every other time, there has been a delay of an hour or more. Part of the problem is that the airline for three of these flights, America West, is small and has a miniscule presence at O'Hare. Things might have been better had we flown United. A lot of the problem has to do with the various problems that the airport has—basically, if conditions aren't perfect then there will be massive, cascading delays. The frequent rain and storms this month have exacerbated the problem, for sure. I'll be flying in this Friday evening, with a scheduled arrival time of 8:20. The question isn't whether I'll be late, but how late I'll be. The over-under is currently midnight. I'm now accepting all bets—any takers?

I bought tickets to the Cubs game tonight against Cincinnati, but obviously I couldn't use them. I ended up giving them to my Dad, my sister Laura, and her fiance Mike. I heard that they had a great time, and that the Cubs actually won—how about that? I'm headed to the Cell for the Sox-Rangers game this coming Saturday. My company is having an outing, so Stacey and I get free tickets and admittance into a free patio party—that means all the food and drinks we want, on the house. Score! (Okay, so it's not as much fun as going to Wrigley, but it's still baseball in the summer, and the food and drinks are free—not too shabby!) Speaking of the Sox, I do plan on being in attendance for the finale of the second crosstown series at Wrigley Field on July 2nd. I've never been to a Sox-Cubs game, so this should be quite an experience. I only hope the Cubs can put up a decent fight (having Derrek Lee back would help) and that the heckling from the Sox fans won't be too annoying.

In completely unrelated news, it's supposed to be 110 degrees here in Phoenix for the rest of the week. Of course, as they say, it's a dry heat, so that's nothing... right? :-)

Well it's getting late here, so I need to get my ass to bed. Before I go, however, I want to congratulate my sister Mary on getting a job! She will be teaching English and coaching cheerleading at a high school in Rockton, Illinois, which is just north of Rockford. Way to go, little sis!

Until we meet again...

-Mark

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

I know, I'm a broken record. Every few months, I come here and post a wildly optimistic blog declaring my return, only to let the site stagnate for several more months immediately after that. Well, I can't guarantee that this time will be any different, but with any luck I've turned the corner away from apathy. In the process, I hope my schtick has not aged as badly as Harrison Ford surely will have between the third and forth installments of Indiana Jones.

It's been quite a while since I mentioned that Stacey became a doctor in my previous post, so perhaps I should catch you up on things. Now, granted, most of you probably have at least some idea of what's been going on in my life since then, but if you had anything better to do with your time then you wouldn't be here, now would you?

I suppose my biggest news is that I'm currently writing this from a hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona. Two weeks ago, I began a two-month engagement with a client here in the Valley of the Sun. It has definitely been an interesting experience for me so far—thankfully, most of it has been positive. I've adapted well to life outside of the midwest, although I'll admit that I do miss the Windy City. I will admit that I don't miss the unpredictable (and often crappy) spring weather of the midwest, although it does piss me off when that weather delays my flights! I do miss my family and friends, however. I'm not homesick, but I must say that I really took for granted how nice it was to be able to go chat with my dad about some unimportant or ridiculous topic, or go drive over to a friend's house to watch a ballgame. I can—and do—use my phone to keep in touch, but the phone is definitely not a substitute for face-to-face contact.

I've got a list of topics to talk about, so I should have plenty of material over the next few days (and, hopefully, weeks and months). For now, I'll just update you on my holiday weekend. Last week, I worked long hours Monday through Thursday in order to have Friday off. Stacey flew in on Thursday for the long weekend, and we really had a great time. On Friday, we drove up to the Grand Canyon and enjoyed a wonderful view. It really is an awesome sight to see, and I highly recommend that everybody visit it if they have the chance. Here are a couple of pictures that I took with my new digital camera, a Canon A620 that I finally bought after 8 months without a functioning camera:

The rest of the weekend, we were both bums. We spent some time at the pool, saw The DaVinci Code, and ate at some fine restaurants: McCormick & Schmicks and The Chart House. The former is a wonderful seafood restaurant that happens to have a location in Chicago, while the latter is apparently limited to West Coast (which is not surprising, given the fact that one of it's main draws is a beautiful Oceanic/Lake view). Anyway, the food at both was fantastic, so I heartily recommend them to you all.

As for the movie, I know there has been a lot of harsh things said about it by the film critics. Was it deserving of these remarks? Well, it's been a while since I read the book, so it's hard for me to compare the two at this time. I did think the movie was worth the price of admission—although it might be a good idea to read the book first to connect the dots at certain points. One thing I was disappointed in was Tom Hanks' performance. It wasn't terrible, per say, but it certainly wasn't what I've come to expect from him. Overall, though, I'd recommend the movie, so go see it and see if you agree with me.

Speaking of movies, I'm anxious to see X-Men 3 but I want to wait until Stacey's had a chance to see its predecessor. As such, it may be a while before I get to see it, but I'm busy enough that I'm not too worried.

Well, I'm off for now. Thanks for visiting and hopefully I can give you a reason to return soon—and frequently.

-Mark

Currently Reading: The Alibi, by Sandra Brown