All Aboard

Tomorrow, Betty, Dawn and I leave for Zambia.  This afternoon, Karin, Mark, Suzanne, Luke, Betty and Dawn came over for a "weighing party" where I weighed my bags to make sure everything would fit on British Airways' planes.  Everything came in just under 51 lbs.  As of Saturday evening, I'm loaded down with three checked bags weighing (47, 50 and 26 lbs.) plus a carry-on with my computer, iPod, books and emergency clothes in case the checked luggage gets lost.  Karin has graciously agreed to drive us up to DFW in her sister's SUV/mini-van.  We're making a pit stop in Belton for breakfast at the Taqueria Mexicana courtesy of my parents.  Pat and Maggie are joining us too.  It'll be nice to see everyone before we leave.  Then it's back on the road for DFW.  I'll try to send photos and post updates as Internet connectivity allows.  Thanks to everyone who had anything to do with this trip.  Whether it was your monetary support, clothing donations or prayers, it was all greatly appreciated.

Here are a few photos I've been meaning to post.  
Photo 1: Karin and me at the Fourth of July
Photo 2: Betty and Dawn at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium

New Look

My blog has a new look courtesy of Suzanne. She designed the previous layout, too.  I told her I wanted the blog to look more "summerish."  Instead of just making it green, she went a step further and used a manipulated a photo their grass in their own yard.  Pretty creative.  Thanks Suz!

iPhone 3G: The San Francisco Treat -- Part 2

Last week, Mark and I took a “brothers-only” trip to San Francisco. I believe an earlier blog post stated incorrectly that our last trip together was in 1996. I stand corrected. Our last trip was to San Diego for the 2000 Holiday Bowl.

Let’s not kid ourselves. This trip had iPhone 3G written all over it. True, I was out there for business, but when we learned on June 9 that the next iPhone would be released during our San Francisco stay, work seemed to fade into the background. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of what went down in our quest for the iPhone 3G. I’m convinced the Microsoft gods were conspiring against us the moment we left Cedar Park.

Tuesday
3:30 pm – Leave Cedar Park to catch 6:30 pm Jet Blue flight
6:30 pm – Jet Blue flight departs Austin
7:30 pm – After circling Austin five times, we land back in Austin. Reason: Faulty landing gear door sensor.
11:30 pm – Flight is grounded for the evening.
11:31 pm – Book back-up Southwest Airlines flight for next morning.

Wednesday
12:30 am – We spend the night at the Holiday Inn Town Lake. We thought it’d be fun to play like tourists to Austin. Bad idea. This place is/was a dump.
1:00 am – Go to bed expecting new Jet Blue flight in the morning.
6:00 am -- Jet Blue flight is cancelled. Natives become restless.
8:30 am – Southwest gets us to San Francisco. God Bless Herb Kelleher.

Thursday
8:00 am – David goes to work. Mark tours Stanford and rides train up and down the Penninsula. Scouts out three Apple retail stores. After much discussion, Palo Alto is agreed upon as the best chance for a phone.
5:00 pm – Brothers James catch the Cal Train into San Francisco. Walk around Union Square, the Embarcadero and near AT&T Park.
10:00 pm – Back at hotel for one final iPhone sync.

Friday
5:30 am -- Two coffees and two Odwalla bars. No time for the restaurant. There’s phones to be had!
6:45 am – Arrive at Palo Alto Apple store a few blocks from Stanford. Already 200th in line. Make some nerd friends and get lots of great free goodies. Best gift: iPhone screen polisher.
10:00 am – Get to counter only to be told we can’t buy an iPhone 3G at the Apple Store. Both our accounts are on corporate plans and therefore locked. Only AT&T can access our accounts. We fight back the tears and push on.
10:30 am – Mountain View AT&T store is sold out. Try to find three more AT&T stores with no luck.
11:30 am – Head to Palo Alto AT&T store. Wait in parking lot for 2 ½ hours. Survive on free water and Dum-Dum suckers. We later find out this is the highest-grossing AT&T store in the US.
12 pm – I get the last iPhone 3G at the AT&T store.
12:30 pm – Head back to Apple store. Mark marches to front of line and tell security guard our “situation.” The Apple rep remembers us and takes Mark to the next available Apple rep. He says, “You’ve waited in line long enough.”
12:45 pm – Mark has an iPhone 3G. The trip is officially a success.
1:15 pm – We celebrate with a sushi lunch and a Red Mango dessert.
2:30 pm – High on Apple, we drive to Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino. We ask to go to the restroom inside the corporate offices so we can get a glimpse inside Steve Jobs’ inner sanctum.
2:45 pm – Relive the day over Starbuck’s coffee.

Saturday
Spend the day walking around the University of California – Berkely campus and driving down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). Dip our feet in the freezing Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco to Austin via Midland -- Part 2

Due to the Jet Blue fiasco on Tuesday, we extended our stay in San Francisco one day and headed back to Austin on Sunday. Forty-five minutes before we landed in Austin, the Southwest pilot announced that we were making an emergency landing in Midland due to fuel smells in the main cabin. Mark and I were seated in rows 3 and 4 so we hadn’t noticed any foul stench.

Once off the plane, we realized the airline fuel had sickened 6 passengers enough that one was taken to the hospital. Once we walked into the Midland terminal we could see a firetruck and police car that had escorted across the tarmac. After a three-hour layover in Midland (and it felt like every bit of 3 hours) we were back in Austin. Another brothers-only trip in the books. iPhone or no iPhone. On-time flight or not. The great company and memories were all worth it.

Charlie

I may be the last person on the planet to see this, but I'm addicted to this clip. I'm not sure what's cuter: the older brother's British accent or Charlie's devilish grin.

Minnesota Trip

I arrived back in Austin last Thursday after four days in Minnesota. Some of the perks for traveling so much is taking in the local cultural destination like museums and historical landmarks. So what better place to absorb the local culture than to visit the Mall of America. I was eager to see the Camp Snoopy amusement park. I don't care who you are. Lifesize Peanuts characters is just about as cool as it gets. When I arrived at The Mall, I discovered the Peanuts gang had been booted by Dora and Diego. Nickelodeon has taken over the amusement park with Nickelodeon Universe.

I felt like The Griswolds when they arrived at Wally World only to discover the park closed (RIP John Candy). So I sucked it up and managed to eat a good Italian dinner at one of the restaurants. I think we selected the one that required the least amount of walking.

I'm home for two weeks before Mark and I head out yonder for the Great iPhone 3G Pilgrimage of 2008...I can't wait for the Fourth of July to get here. Besides Christmas, the Fourth of July is hands-down my favorite holiday. The air just seems different on that day. The parade, the Marching 100, being at Mom and Dad's and seeing friends new and old. The last count reported by the accounting firm of Jim and Sharon, LLC, is 55...I spent Saturday afternoon at William, Cristi and Brody's in Buda. Brody is adorable. He has the perfect little face and head. He slept for about 1 1/2 in my arms before he got hungry...Sunday afternoon was spent at Maggie and Jo's riding the jet ski. Maggie has been very gracious in letting me monopolize two weekends in a row for some lake fun. We covered almost all 28 miles of Lake Belton in two weekends. Along the way, she'd point out Paw-Paw's favorite fishing spots. He loved that lake!

Smile...It's June 20th

Besides being a Friday, there is another good reason to be happy. Scientists have discovered June 20 to be the happiest day of the year.

O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He

Full story.

And I thought it was just because I ate at Matt's today.

Beautiful Image

Whenever you see this image, you know Steve Jobs is up to something good. And this time it was pure iPhone goodness. A new iPhone that works on the 3G network and not the molasses network otherwise known as Edge. I'm selling my 2G iPhone for $125 if anyone is interested.

Mark and I are going out to San Francisco next month for some work (me) and play (Mark). It's the first boys-only trip we've taken together since our L.A. trip just before out last semester at UT. We're trying to figure out which San Francisco-area Apple store to camp out in front of come July 11. It's going to be a complete dork-fest when we're out there. First...stop at the Apple headquarters to soak of the aura of Steve Jobs. Seconds, visit the garage in Palo Alto where HP was founded. Then go to our hotel across the street from Oracle.

Blogs Are Great

Blogs are great inventions. There's only one catch: I have to write posts for them to work. I've been really horrible about posting lately. I'll try to take the next few paragraphs to update everyone on what's been going on in my life the last six weeks (!) since I last posted.

The chaos started in mid-May with a trip to New York City for a series of customer meetings. I didn't do too much sightseeing, but did happen to catch the leftover crowd from the New Kids on the Block concert at the Today Show. I arrived about 10 minutes too late, but did manage to catch Jonathan smoking outside Rockefeller Center. The rest of my morning was spent doing a whirlwind "window media tour" of NYC. First stop, Don Imus near Madison Square Garden; Bill Hemmer at Fox News and then Anne Curry at the Today Show. I guess I'm easily entertained by watching TV shows through 3-inch thick glass with no sound.

It was back in Austin for the weekend and then off to Denver for work. Our team had an internal planning meeting for the next fiscal year. We capped off the week with a hike in Red Rocks.

It was back in Austin for full week and then off to Washington, D.C. for work. We're launching a new release of our software so we're kicking off a global sales training initiative. I met a co-worker in Reston, Va., just outside D.C. and took the D.C. Metro inside the Beltway for dinner and sightseeing. We didn't finish dinner until 10 pm but were still able to walk around the White House, tour the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial and walk inside the Lincoln Memorial. I definitely want to return to D.C. to visit the Smithsonian. Maybe Obama's inauguration would be a good time!

As I write this, I'm on my couch at home in good ol' Austin (okay Cedar Park) with Molly snoozing next to me. I leave on Sunday afternoon for Minneapolis-St.Paul for another round of training. I hope to visit the Mall of America and maybe bump in to Jeff Olson's kin folk.

Yesterday, Mark and I celebrated our 33rd birthday with friends and family. Does that sound as old as it looks on the screen? While it was great to have everyone there, I wish Karin could have been there. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for her) she was soaking up the sun in Hawaii with her mom, sister and roomate.

I did, however, receive this nice birthday message from Karin at 12:01 am on June 11th.