I was on KZHT yesterday (sorry for forgetting to inform you in advance!
Today I was interviewed by KSL and by the Deseret News, about our Career Day. So look for that.
December 4th I will be on Fox 13 sometime during the 8:00 hour.
17 November 2007
One last observation about Denver
Next post I'll be moving on, I promise.
The 16th street mall in Denver is home to 5 Starbucks. I can't remember if that figure includes the one inside the Barnes & Noble, or not.
The 16th street mall in Denver is home to 5 Starbucks. I can't remember if that figure includes the one inside the Barnes & Noble, or not.
14 November 2007
Front Range Conspiracy
The state of Colorado does not want me to leave. I am beginning to fear what will happen the next time I go to Colorado and try to leave it again.
Last year, Colorado tried to keep me there by totalling my car. Fortunately, I was able to outwit it by flying home. This year Colorado was on to me.
Monday afternoon I sat in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for my shuttle to come take me to the airport. I had reserved the shuttle a week in advance, prepaid. I had the confirmation ticket in my hand. They were supposed to arrive at 5:00. I knew that I had scheduled it pretty tight, but was confident that I would get to the airport in time for my flight.
The shuttle never came.
The lovely concierge at the hotel, Brian, got the company on the phone and after 5 minutes on hold and being hung up on once, he determined that they were not going to come get me at all. He gave them all of the information for them to refund my money, and then flagged down another shuttle for me.
After stopping at a few other hotels, we set off to the airport. About halfway there (and remember that DIA is somewhere near Kansas), it occurred to me that I had no cash. Why would I need it? I had prepaid for my shuttle.
This shuttle driver only took cash.
So, upon arriving at the airport (quite late) I had to run inside, find an ATM, get money, pay the guy, collect my bags and head off to check in for my flight. Too late for the sky hop - but he directed me to the airline counter. Too late to check in on the kiosk - it logged me out and referred me to an agent.
The agent took one look at me and told me I had missed my flight. I, happy just to have finally arrived, agreed to be placed on standby for the later flight. I had never flown standby before, but people do it all the time. Couldn't be too hard.
Having now given up on the 6:45 flight (it was 6:10), I checked my bags and took a much-needed restroom break. I then casually headed for security. TSA was understaffed, with only two attendants staffing the x-ray and metal detectors. We had to load our own stuff onto the x-ray conveyor belt.
I put my shoes and tote bag in one tray, then took my laptop out of my bag and put it in another tray. There was a line of people crowding up to go through, so to save space I put the laptop bag on top of the tray, like I always do. Went through the metal detector, no problem. However, just as my second tray came out of x-ray, a third TSA person walked up and was informed of a problem bag. He took my tote with my shoes in it and started rifling through my tote bag. While he did this, I got my other tote and put the laptop back in the bag.
"Is there a laptop in this bag?"
"No . . . in this bag."
"Is there an iPod in this bag?"
"No . . . in this bag."
"I need to see that bag."
"No problem."
I gave him the other bag.
"You didn't take the laptop out of the bag?"
"No, I did. I just already put it back in again."
"Oh . . . that's a problem. I need to see the laptop."
"Okay, I'll take it back out."
I started unzipping the bag.
"No! There has been too much touching already! You need to step away."
Oh, dear. Now, this is the part where it was really good that I had already given up on the 6:45 flight. Since I had hours to kill at this point, I was willing to do whatever it took to make these guys happy, at their own pace.
"Hey Bob, these bags haven't cleared security. And now she's touched them and gone through them, so she hasn't cleared security either."
Oh dear, oh dear. Have I mentioned that we have been upgraded to an Orange Homeland Security alert level?
Bob, fortunately, is a reasonable guy, and he walked me back out of security, and then back through again. They re-x-rayed my bags and everyone was happy, and they sent me on my way. That easily could have become a very tense situation but they realized that they had sort of caused the problem so they sent me on my way. Good thing I'm not a terrorist!
Checking in done, bathroom done, security done and done. I head off to my gate, and hear over the PA system: "Passenger So-and-so, please report to gate A65 for flight xxx to Salt Lake City.
My original flight hadn't even left yet!
Whatever. I got some food, settled in, read a book for a while. About an hour before the flight, I asked the gate agents if I was going to get a seat. They took my boarding pass and told me they'd get back to me.
It makes me nervous to be at an airport with no boarding pass, but I'm sure that is always how it goes when you fly standby, right?
At 9:10 they started boarding. I still hadn't gotten a call and was starting to get a little nervous when finally they called me over and gave me a boarding pass with a seat assignment. I got straight on the plane. We finished boarding. We sat there, and sat there and sat there . . . finally, at almost 10:00, the pilot came on to announce that the passenger manifest did not match the boarding list, and now they had to go through ticket by ticket to match up who was on the plane and who was not.
This made me very nervous that they were going to kick me off the plane. (Stranger things have happened at the airports, recently.) I just wanted to go home! Why won't Colorado let me leave!
Finally, though, the plane doors were closed and we got on our way. It was a very bumpy flight, but we made it back okay and finally at 1:00 I was snug at home in bed.
But if I never go back to Colorado again - or, more importantly, never come back from Colorado again - you'll know why.
It's a conspiracy!
Last year, Colorado tried to keep me there by totalling my car. Fortunately, I was able to outwit it by flying home. This year Colorado was on to me.
Monday afternoon I sat in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for my shuttle to come take me to the airport. I had reserved the shuttle a week in advance, prepaid. I had the confirmation ticket in my hand. They were supposed to arrive at 5:00. I knew that I had scheduled it pretty tight, but was confident that I would get to the airport in time for my flight.
The shuttle never came.
The lovely concierge at the hotel, Brian, got the company on the phone and after 5 minutes on hold and being hung up on once, he determined that they were not going to come get me at all. He gave them all of the information for them to refund my money, and then flagged down another shuttle for me.
After stopping at a few other hotels, we set off to the airport. About halfway there (and remember that DIA is somewhere near Kansas), it occurred to me that I had no cash. Why would I need it? I had prepaid for my shuttle.
This shuttle driver only took cash.
So, upon arriving at the airport (quite late) I had to run inside, find an ATM, get money, pay the guy, collect my bags and head off to check in for my flight. Too late for the sky hop - but he directed me to the airline counter. Too late to check in on the kiosk - it logged me out and referred me to an agent.
The agent took one look at me and told me I had missed my flight. I, happy just to have finally arrived, agreed to be placed on standby for the later flight. I had never flown standby before, but people do it all the time. Couldn't be too hard.
Having now given up on the 6:45 flight (it was 6:10), I checked my bags and took a much-needed restroom break. I then casually headed for security. TSA was understaffed, with only two attendants staffing the x-ray and metal detectors. We had to load our own stuff onto the x-ray conveyor belt.
I put my shoes and tote bag in one tray, then took my laptop out of my bag and put it in another tray. There was a line of people crowding up to go through, so to save space I put the laptop bag on top of the tray, like I always do. Went through the metal detector, no problem. However, just as my second tray came out of x-ray, a third TSA person walked up and was informed of a problem bag. He took my tote with my shoes in it and started rifling through my tote bag. While he did this, I got my other tote and put the laptop back in the bag.
"Is there a laptop in this bag?"
"No . . . in this bag."
"Is there an iPod in this bag?"
"No . . . in this bag."
"I need to see that bag."
"No problem."
I gave him the other bag.
"You didn't take the laptop out of the bag?"
"No, I did. I just already put it back in again."
"Oh . . . that's a problem. I need to see the laptop."
"Okay, I'll take it back out."
I started unzipping the bag.
"No! There has been too much touching already! You need to step away."
Oh, dear. Now, this is the part where it was really good that I had already given up on the 6:45 flight. Since I had hours to kill at this point, I was willing to do whatever it took to make these guys happy, at their own pace.
"Hey Bob, these bags haven't cleared security. And now she's touched them and gone through them, so she hasn't cleared security either."
Oh dear, oh dear. Have I mentioned that we have been upgraded to an Orange Homeland Security alert level?
Bob, fortunately, is a reasonable guy, and he walked me back out of security, and then back through again. They re-x-rayed my bags and everyone was happy, and they sent me on my way. That easily could have become a very tense situation but they realized that they had sort of caused the problem so they sent me on my way. Good thing I'm not a terrorist!
Checking in done, bathroom done, security done and done. I head off to my gate, and hear over the PA system: "Passenger So-and-so, please report to gate A65 for flight xxx to Salt Lake City.
My original flight hadn't even left yet!
Whatever. I got some food, settled in, read a book for a while. About an hour before the flight, I asked the gate agents if I was going to get a seat. They took my boarding pass and told me they'd get back to me.
It makes me nervous to be at an airport with no boarding pass, but I'm sure that is always how it goes when you fly standby, right?
At 9:10 they started boarding. I still hadn't gotten a call and was starting to get a little nervous when finally they called me over and gave me a boarding pass with a seat assignment. I got straight on the plane. We finished boarding. We sat there, and sat there and sat there . . . finally, at almost 10:00, the pilot came on to announce that the passenger manifest did not match the boarding list, and now they had to go through ticket by ticket to match up who was on the plane and who was not.
This made me very nervous that they were going to kick me off the plane. (Stranger things have happened at the airports, recently.) I just wanted to go home! Why won't Colorado let me leave!
Finally, though, the plane doors were closed and we got on our way. It was a very bumpy flight, but we made it back okay and finally at 1:00 I was snug at home in bed.
But if I never go back to Colorado again - or, more importantly, never come back from Colorado again - you'll know why.
It's a conspiracy!
12 November 2007
Religious experience
Today my breakfast order was taken by Zeus, and my food was served to me by Jesus.
Now that's what I call service!
Now that's what I call service!
11 November 2007
Some DAM artwork
bernini bust of pope urban viii:
saw a wood copy of this michelangelo:
rembrandt:
velasquez:
velasquez: saw a wood copy of this michelangelo:Formatting headache
If anyone can tell me why blogspot won't put spaces between my paragraphs, I'd really appreciate it. They don't seem to work no matter what I do.
More from Denver
So, I guess the trip to the US Mint is out for tomorrow, since it's a federal holiday. (Yay veterans!) I am not entirely sure what I am going to do with my afternoon, but I'm sure I will come up with something.
Today I did some work on the laptop in my hotel room, and then went to the ESPN Zone for dinner. The food is good, the staff is good, and it's a wonderful place to go and watch the Colts lose. (Who saw that coming? And Vinatieri missed two field goals? Seriously? And Peyton Manning threw six interceptions? Wow.)
It's not too often that Peyton Manning only scores 3 fantasy points. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Anyway, it's been a nice trip to Colorado, overall. I got here Wednesday for the National Science Teachers Association conference (read: Science Nerd Convention). The workshops were good, the free swag was okay (but how will I get it all home?), the abundance of nerd toys was great (I bought myself a Beaker), and I got to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The DMNS is currently home to the Titanic artifacts exhibit, which is pretty cool. I thought it would be old hat (haven't we seen enough Titanic stuff yet?) but it was really interesting. They have a lot of old artifacts they found at the site of the wreck, including clothes, shoes, and papers. I can't fathom (pardon the pun) how those papers survived over 80 years under two miles of water, but they did. The exhibit is also set up so that you travel through the first class cabins to third class, ultimately ending up in the engine rooms before hitting the open ocean. They even have an enormous "iceberg" - a block of ice over 6 feet high and 12 feet long.
When you enter the exhibit, you are handed a boarding pass for the voyage, with all of the personal info of one of the actual passengers. Not until you are leaving the exhibit do you find out whether you lived or died. (I survived.) They also had actors playing several of the different people who were on the ship - one first class passenger would not talk to you if you had a third-class boarding pass. If this exhibit travels to your town, you should check it out.
Surprisingly disappointing was the Louvre exhibit I saw at the DAM. I guess gilded chairs just don't do it for me. The sculpture was very cool - everything from the Roman empire to Louis XIV - and the paintings were also very interesting. There was a Rembrandt, a Titian, bust by Bernini, a drawing by van Dyck, drawings by Reubens, some Duhrer sketches . . . I think I liked the portrait by Rembrandt the best. It's nice seeing some stuff I learned about in art history up close and personal, too.
So tomorrow it's back home. I'll try to post some pictures sometime this week, since I think I got some good shots at the DAM.
10 November 2007
Greetings from Denver
Hello! I finally got the computer to talk to the wi-fi at the hotel, so now I can blog from Colorado. I'm sure you were all very concerned.
Anyway, I just flew into Denver on Wednesday, and boy are my legs tired! I opted not to get a car on this trip, and as a result I have been walking everywhere. On the one hand, it is good exercise. On the other hand, my legs are tired. Of course, this is much better than DC because in DC everything is much farther away than it appears, and in Denver everything is much closer than it appears.
One reason for the rather large amounts of walking is my general desire to reconnoiter. I like to know where things are in relation to other things, thus making it much harder for me to get lost. So every day I took a different route to the convention center, just so I'd know what was there. I walked to the Denver Art Museum down 16th street and around the park, but came back through the park. I walked all the way down to Market street on 16th, but came back to the hotel on 15th (I recommend 16th). I have walked the entire length of the 16th Street Mall twice.
Another reason for all the walking is that I have a hard time deciding where/what to eat. I'm really bad at picking a place to go to lunch at work, and I am equally bad at it when I'm by myself. I think I did laps on the 16th street mall for over an hour the other night before finally settling on Chili's.
I know, I know. I'm a little ashamed by it but I stand by my decision because the honey chipotle chicken crispers are really good.
I wish I weren't here all by myself, as going out to eat is so much better when one is not by oneself, but I'm adjusting. Tonight I have scouted out many other fine restaurant chains to dine at, including: Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's, Chipotle, and Subway. Hmm . . .
Tomorrow, since I already visited the museum today, I plan to do some work in my room, then go to the ESPN Zone to watch football. Monday is a bit more up in the air, since the weather is supposed to take a serious turn for the worse. I am going to try to go to the US Mint, but may just hole up at the Corner Bakery with the laptop. (They sell Swiss oatmeal for breakfast! Name one other American restaurant that sells that. I dare you. Oh, it's so good. Why did I waste two days of breakfast on Einstein's?) I fly back home on Monday evening, and then it's back to work on Tuesday.
02 November 2007
Another Halloween idea
Spicy guacamole Pringles make my lips swell up. I don't know if it's the salt or the spices, but they do. Try it at home! If it works, you can be Oprah for Halloween next year.
UEA
I went to the UEA convention on Tuesday. Not very exciting, I gotta say. I think the National Science Teachers Association convention next week will be much more interesting. Science teachers have all the fun toys.
But, having gone to the conference (really, just the exhibitors hall - no workshops), I now can make the perfect elementary-school teacher costume for Halloween next year. It's easy!
But, having gone to the conference (really, just the exhibitors hall - no workshops), I now can make the perfect elementary-school teacher costume for Halloween next year. It's easy!
- Festive, holiday-themed jewelry
- Festive, holiday-themed sweater
- fold-up milk crate with handle and wheels (sold by 3 exhibitors - the deluxe has a drink holder) - fill with bulletin board borders, phonics books, die-cuts, Crayola swag
- Glasses on a lanyard around your neck (jeweled lanyard extra)
- Diet Coke
- Chalk or white board eraser-tray line across your backside
- Ink stains on fingers
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