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