After a solid night's sleep, I was up before my 6am alarm and out the door at 6:08. I headed to the hotel fitness center... it was closed. I think yesterday's theme continues today. Actually it was to open at 6:30am but I headed out the door instead.

I was greeted by the fresh, crisp, cool air and wished I had on my long sleeve running shirt, but I had only brought one and plan to run longer tomorrow. I set right into a jog and everything around me came to life. A rabbit ran for cover. As I rounded the bend, I came upon a large pack of big brown geese who were splashing into the water after I startled them. Some morning birds were out for their morning worm.

I ran the loop around the hotel property, which had to be just under a mile. So I ran it three and a half times (to make sure I at least got a 3 mile run). On the way around, I kept passing the sole "mountain" that looked like a very small, grass-covered volcano jutting right out of the ground. This was, in the winter, the local ski lift. With only one lift. I wondered if they would shoo me away if I ventured to climb it. I think I'll make that my goal tomorrow. I think I'll run 2 or 3 laps and then climb up that thing and then back down. It is steep enough to present a real challenge, but short enough that it shouldn't take me all day. It's 205ft high.

They don't use it for mountain biking in the summer... probably because it would take less than a minute to get from top to bottom. Most likely, you could race down in less than 20 seconds. Not much of a thrill.

Oconomowoc is a quaint city. I decided to check out the website for the city and found this on their "tourism" page:

From a quiet weekend retreat for two, to the glamour and excitement of a national convention for 1,000, Oconomowoc has the facilities to meet your needs. But the charm of this unique part of Wisconsin only starts there.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't really find conventions to be glamourous or exciting... especially if they were to be held in Oconomowoc.

I did find this link to pictures of Oconomowoc:

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv29548.php

It has only one picture. In the last 14 months, this picture has been viewed 247 times and rated by 3 voters. It's a sleepy little town.

Carl and I did make it back to The Golden Mast. It's a nice looking restaurant with large windows overlooking the lake, and stained glass windows, and a huge moose head staring over your shoulder while you're having dinner. Carl and I both had the special. For $23.50 you could have the filet and lobster with the side dishes. Carl had the salad and mashed potatoes. I opted for the soup and mashed potatoes.

I had to try the soup. I've never had "trout & asparagus soup". It tasted exactly as it sounds.

How Did I Grow Up to Be Such An Old Nerd?

I got up at 5:00 this morning to finish packing for my trip to Oconomowoc, Wi.

This would be a non-stop flight from Tampa to Milwaukee, followed by sitting at the airport for over 6 hours waiting for a co-worker to arrive, then a 45 minute drive to the hotel.

Comfort was the order of the day, so I dressed in blue jeans, a tank top, and a sweater... after all, it was getting down to 55 degrees tonight in Oconomowoc. And I decided to wear my Teva's.And this is when I realized that I'm just an old nerd. I wore white socks with the Teva's. Now this was justifiable in my mind, for several reasons. 1) You have to take your shoes off at the airport and this way, I would at least have on socks so I wouldn't have to walk barefoot on those grungy floors. 2) It's always so cold on airplanes and the socks would keep my feet warm. 3) It was getting down to 55 degrees in Oconomowoc! Excuses aside, I was still an old nerd, which is confirmed by the fact that I would even have considered wearing black socks with the Teva's.

I made it to Milwaukee and used my 6+ hours getting some work done (and it took me all of that time to get my work done) so the time really flew. I got the rental car and picked up Carl and we were finally on the road to Oconomowoc. So then he tells me that he'd never heard of Oconomowoc, but was watching an old re-run of "Married With Children" and Al was actually going there! Apparently, the bra style that Peggy wears is no longer available at their usual store and they were headed to the Oconomowoc "adult" accessory store.

Then, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go to Oconomowoc. We arrived at the Olympia Resort & Spa. It's an older hotel on a beautiful property with a lake, indoor/outdoor swimming pool, shuffle board (the old nerd theme continues), and, of course, a spa. But their on-site steak house was closed. I took the hotel directory with me and Carl & I headed out in search of dinner. I wanted to go to "The Red Circle Inn" (Wisconsin's Oldest Restaurant). When we arrived... it was closed. Good thing I brought that directory with all the restaurant listings! Next choice... "Golden Mast Inn" (on Okauchee Lake). When we arrived... it was closed. OK - 3rd time is a charm and just to make sure, we picked "Schwefel's Restaurant & Lounge" (Open 7 nights a week)! When we arrived... it was closed. You've got to be kidding me!!! By now, we've spent 1 hour looking for a restaurant and it is 8pm (9pm Florida time). We finally settled on "Spinnakers Restaurant & Bar" because it seemed to be in the middle of this little town - not that that means it would be open... but it was.

I had a tasty pan-fried catfish dinner that was pretty delicious!

Needless to say, my workout today was traveling and chasing down dinner.

And now, like the old nerd that I am, I'm off to bed.

I think tomorrow night, we're going back to Golden Mast for dinner. It's right on the lake in a beautiful Bavarian-style setting.

The Long Way Home

I'm not sure what it was that hit me yesterday but I had such a craving. At 1:30pm I still hadn't eaten lunch and had nothing in the house. I headed for Publix thinking I'd get some fruit and vegetables. I did, but I also realized that I had a huge craving for all things unhealthy. I used Gillian McKeith as my justification. She says to eat really well 80% of the time and have what you want 20% of the time. I had my entire 20% in one sitting.

How's this for satisfying cravings for fat, salt and sugar.

Potato chips (at least they were made from sweet potatos and carrots), Jelly Beans (I only ate the red, pink and black ones), popcorn, and fried chicken (I only ate two drumsticks).

And then I felt very, very satisfied, and very, very bad.

So today, I did a long run. I met Dawn at the corner of 24th Ave and 16th Street and we ran all over St. Pete. We ran over an hour and covered somewhere between 6 and 6.5 miles. And it was so hot and humid so it was a real effort.

We ended our run at the Dammit Gym for a workshop on deadlift, sumo deadlift highpull, pushups and kipping pull up. All of this was great for me. I've never really been shown the technical aspects of pushups so that was especially helpful. And pull-ups - still my nemesis. Working on the kipping was great and I even popped my back - that was awesome. Now I'll have to put in the practice to get from the kip to the pull-up.

After the WOD it was time to go home... only Dawn and I were on foot so we still had to walk/jog all the way back.

The Art of War

They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if they are both the same person?

Tim is on a mission to kick my ass in a 5k run. He has been "closet training" and following the "Run Less, Run Faster" beginner program. He's starting from the basics and plans to progress quickly through all of their 5k training programs.

He does not like to run with me. I think that's because I have this subconscious thing when it comes to anyone running around my pace. If they inch ahead of me, I inch up too. Before too long, we may both be sprinting! And he hates that! But last night, he let me run with him. But I had to agree to run his pace. That wasn't difficult to agree to after this hard leg week at CrossFit. We ran a 3 mile loop around The Pier.

I think that he will only let me run with him as long as I am still doing CrossFit and am pretty worn out!

This morning it was raining and there was lots of lightning and thunder. That meant no swimming, so even dedicated swimmer Ted opted for CrossFit this morning.

Today we did:

"It's All About the Bench"

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

Handstand push-ups 5 reps

Bench press 135 pounds, 10 reps

Push press 95 pounds, 15 reps

Dips 20 reps

HSPU's were on the blue/blue bands. 75# for bench press. 45# for push press. Jumping/box assisted ring dips.

I got 3 rounds plus 5 wimpy HSPU's.

This was SO hard!

I got to where I could only do 1 or 2 bench presses at a time. With Dawn closing in on me with one more press, I missed the rack on one side and had to duck for cover with the bar coming down on top of me. Marc was scrambling to get over and grab the bar.... and me? I was just laughing.

And, I could barely do 3 hspu's in the first round but just eeked out the 5, but in subsequent rounds, my arms would just collapse causing me to lower into a somersault and lay it out on the floor. How did Marc and DL describe my workout? Amtrak - because I was such a train wreck!!

This was my morning at CrossFit:

Fill'er Up

You know you've been traveling too much when you go to the gas station in your own car and forget which side the fuel tank is on! One of the rental cars I had on a recent trip had a handy little feature. When you look at the fuel guage on the dash board, it also had an arrow pointing to the side with the fuel tank. I wish I could take all of my favorite features from all the different cars and put them into one car.

Here are some of my other favorite features:

1. A head rest with space for a pony tail (as seen on the Volvo - made for women, by women).

2. My old Mazda had this feature where you would pull the door handle and it would light up the key hole in the door.

3. A must-have for me...a rear seat that folds down and the opening to the trunk is huge - enough to easily fit my bicycle.

4. Prongs inside the trunk (along the sides) so that you can place the handles of your plastic grocery bags over them so the bags don't go sliding around when you drive home.

5. I haven't seen this one yet, but I would like to have small wiper blades on my side-view mirrors.

I'm sure there's lots more that I can think of.

CrossFit was just plain hard today. Whoever put together this weeks WOD's must have an ass fetish because mine is killing me!! Walking lunges, hanging power snatch, and now wall ball! I feel like each of my cheeks IS a wall ball!

Today's WOD was "What, No Burpees": for time

50x Wall Ball 10#, 50x pull -ups (blue band for me)

35x wall ball 10#, 35x pull-ups (blue band)

20x wall ball 10#, 20x pull-ups (jumping)

My time: 17:10

Holy Moley

Wild thunderstorm last night - lots of lightning and loud thunder during the wee hours. My last alarm clock was killed by a lightning strike and I haven't quite figured out my new one. Two mornings in a row that the alarm did not go off. But I still made it to CrossFit in time for my workout. And this alarm clock did survive last nights thunderstorm.

Actually, I was a little late to CrossFit so I only did one round of the warm-up before joining Dawn for hanging power snatch. Marc even posted my picture from our previous hps day.

Today's WOD was 10x1 lifts. I did 35#, 40#, 40#, 45#, 50#, 55#(fail), 52#, 52#, 55#, 57#. I think I could have gone higher on the weight, even after that fail at 55#. It is definitely all in the technique! If I focus on jumping as high as I can, then getting under the bar as fast as I can, I can get it done.

The only problem I seem to be having now is my new format of pull-ups during the warm-up. I am using the blue band and placing my left leg into the band so that the band supports me from around the ankle. Then I do kipping pull-ups. This is harder than having my foot in the band, but not quite as hard as no band at all.

The problem is, I've had this mole on my inner upper thigh for about 15 years now. I had a doctor look at it years ago - it looks like a tiny little blood blister. I was told that it was nothing to worry about, unless it started changing in appearance. It's been fine all these years until now. My new style of pull-ups causes that rubber band to scrape over this mole and it is scraping the hell out of it and causing it to tear and scab over... lovely conversation, eh?

I went to my doctor today and they decided to go ahead and remove it. Whoopee!! I've always hated that thing anyway. They gave me a little shot to numb the area and used a scalpel to just cut it right out. Then they coterized the spot and it's already scabbed over. Now I'll just have to cover it until it is completely healed - of course by then I probably be off the band for my pull-ups anyway! (Let's hope).

The Blue Falcon

At CrossFit St. Pete, I am a Blue Falcon. It really sounds like a majestic thing... American Eagle... Blue Falcon. Not quite. I guess this is a military term - and NOT a nice one. From what I hear, it stands for "buddy fxxker".

http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/cadence/marching_cadence/blue-falcon.shtml

This all started during a session of Lynne where two other girls and I were rotating through our bench presses. One of the other girls is particularly strong and when I told her that I could do this WOD at 75#, I "encouraged" her to go higher, knowing she could do it! I think she settled on 85#, which was challenging but earned her a high ranking on the board. That's when Marc said I was a Blue Falcon.

Today, I brought in my friend Dawn for her first CrossFit experience. She made it through Baseline and we were talking about what was in store for the rest of the week. I got pretty excited to find out that we have hanging power cleans followed by a horrible wall ball/pull-up combo day. I told Dawn that she would really, really love the lift days and she agreed to be there bright and early tomorrow morning. To which Marc again replied that I am a real Blue Falcon!

Anyway, my WOD today was "Cough Up a Lunge"... one of my favorites, even though I'm not that fast at it. I don't even remember my time so I'll have to look at the St. Pete CrossFit site tomorrow.

This WOD is

Walking lunges 100ft, 21 pull-ups, 21 sit-ups

Walking lunges 100ft, 18 pull-ups, 18 sit-ups

and so on for 15, 12, 9 and 6.

But the best thing about today's workout was more progress in the warm-up, particularly on the ring dips. Using the blue-band, knees only is now too easy. So, we raised the rings up to my arm pits and I have to jump up. I can jump a little and work really hard to lock out, but when I am too tired, I'll jump more and negative down. I already feel a new soreness in my chest and triceps that I have never had from ring dips before. Aaahhh... the pain of progress.

Time Flies - But Not When I Do

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post! That last post was the day before I left on another trip to Las Vegas for work. So Tuesday was mostly a travel day, arriving at 4pm (7pm Florida time).

I had dinner at my usual place - Wolfgang Puck's in my hotel .

Wednesday was a long tedious day at the customer (Venetian/Palazzo), then I went for a LONG walk up the strip to the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

I thought I'd shop in the style of "What not to wear" and look for quality clothing that actually works well for me. I didn't see anything I liked - except for that beautiful dress at Gucci and the one at Versace. I didn't dare set foot in the door!

Thursday was an exercise in futulity - literally, and it was my workout for the day. I got to the airport at 5:15am for a 7am flight. When I checked in and got my boarding pass, it said that my flight to Phoenix was delayed. I only had about an hour in Phoenix before the flight to Tampa - but nothing showed when the expected departure time was. So, I went through security and headed to my gate. Of course my gate was ALL THE WAY at the end. When I got there, it showed that my flight would be delayed by 2 hours. Great. I'll miss my connection. But none of the gates were open, no one was around who could help so I had to go ALL THE WAY back, past security, to ticketing. There, I stood in a LONG line to get to a ticket agent. By the time I got to someone, I was told that they brought in another plane and my flight was now on time - which meant that NOW I had to rush ALL THE WAY back to my gate to catch the flight that I showed up early for! What the...?!

The Beer Run

I am a morning person. And I love to get my workout in before my day gets started. It energizes me for the whole day. As much as I am a morning person, I am not much of an evening person. What made me decide that it was a good idea to do an evening 5k run event, I’m not really sure. But the worst time for me to do a 5k race is at the end of the day, particularly at the end of the week.

But this was the Inaugural Tap House 5k where the post-race amenities included beer and more beer. I’m not even a beer drinker, but when they threw in the fact that the top 30 men and women would be awarded with “Das Boot” – well, now maybe I had something to race for.

That evening, while dressing for the race, Tim was focusing on his goal… “19:30… 19:30” he said, over and over before adding… “and then for the 2^nd mile”. And for this race, he wore his most appropriate “Will Run for Beer” tech shirt.

We left home early to miss the traffic on the way to Oldsmar and found a nice and shady parking spot only steps away from the start line. We picked up our race packages then walked around to loosen up. We wondered over to the tent where they were displaying the awards. Now Fred Ryzmek, the race director, was setting out to put on a really great event, but I must say that “Das Boot” wasn’t nearly as cool as I was hoping. I was expecting a glass beer boot – maybe even with a race logo on it. But these were plastic beer boots from Hofbrau Haus, hung from a lanyard to wear around your neck.

Any devoted beer lover might actually drool at the thought of winning one of these boots – but being the “winer” that I am, I realized (with some relief) that I didn’t actually have to “race” tonight! But now I had to decide… did I want to run hard or pace Dawn or run/walk with Sally. I’d figure it out at the last minute.

We lined up at the start line and Fred Ryzmek announced that they had been hoping for a turnout of about 250 and wound up with 1200!! Wow!!

The gun went off and away we went, and even while running, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with this race. Less than ½ mile into the run, I looked back and Tim was right on my heels. Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Who better to run with at the beer run than the beer meister himself!

I kept the pace going and Tim stayed with me as we hit the Mile 1 mark: 7:55 (that’s fast for Tim). After about 1.5 miles, Tim hinted at slowing the pace just a bit and we hit Mile 2 at 16:07 (8:21 for the 2^nd mile). After that, he had to back off more to catch his breath and we paced a 9:21 3^rd mile and finished in 26:13 – which is terrific for Tim.

We’ll start working on how to negative split and I feel confident that we can easily get his 5k time down to about 24 minutes.

A Local Celebrity

Tim was recently interviewed by Terry Tomalin of the St. Petersburg Times for his input on open water swimming. Here is a link to the full article:

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/article1006309.ece

Here's an abridged version:

Like many open-water swimmers, Tim Kennedy turned to the ocean out of boredom.

"I just got tired of swimming in a pool," said the 52-year-old mortgage broker and fund manager from St. Petersburg. "I got sick of starting at those black lines, hour after hour, day after day."

Kennedy, who trains with the St. Pete Masters and the Mad Dogs Triathlon Club, has been an open-water devotee for more than a decade.

"It is addictive," he said. "It is like a runner who spends all their time on a track, then one day they cut you loose on some trails. You don't want to go back."

Over the years, Kennedy has swum the entire length of Tampa Bay and around Key West, as well as circumnavigating Manhattan.

"When you get out there, the other swimmers don't matter," he said. "You are out there pushing yourself … competing against Mother Nature."

Like most open-water devotees, Kennedy finds ocean swimming a mental release.

"It is almost like an out-of-body experience," he said. "You just let your mind wander. You swim on auto pilot. It is really an exhilarating experience."

How To Install a Gazebo

Have your boyfriend do it!

I have had my eye on this gazebo at Target for several months. I looked at it every time I went to Target. Several weeks ago, it was on sale for $299 but I just didn't have the time to grab it then and it went back to the regular price of $349.

Now I know I've spent more than $50 in gas money and in time going back to Target every weekend to see if it were back on sale, but I refused to pay full price (even if it did cost me more in the long run).

I even asked if they'd just save us both the time and effort and sell it to me on the spot for $299. No deal. One weekend, I dropped in and there was a clearance sign on it - but the price still showed $349. I had their sales person check and they just removed the sign. The next weekend I went back and the sign was there again (without it being on sale). I took the sign down myself and discarded it somewhere in "Housewares".

But this weekend, Tim got the Sunday paper and there it was, in the Target flyer, Madaga Gazebo on sale for $299! I took the flyer with me, as proof, just in case.

When we walked in through the Garden area, another couple was leaving and had this huge box on a cart. The box was stamped "Madaga Gazebo". They better not have just purchased the last one. While I contemplated what kind of scene I was about to create, Tim checked with the sales person to confirm that, yes, there was another in stock. Disaster was averted.

We got the gazebo home and Tim did what most guys don't do. He read all of the instructions. Then he methodically organized all the parts and assembled the based. The next day, I helped him put it in place and while he finished assembling the top, I hung the net curtains.

Voila! One beautiful gazebo!

It's a Dog's World

              

only sometimes I wish it were a cat's.

Don't you just wish you could spend your days laying around (on the dining table no less), covering your face like Fred here, with not a care in the world... other than, what treat am I getting and when am I getting it!!!

Sunday was a busy day, starting dark and early.  I guess I caught up on my sleep Friday night because I had the alarm set for 5:30am but was wide awake at 4:00am.  So I got out of bed and piddled until it was time to go.

I got down to Spa Beach a little after 6:00am to volunteer for the Ironkids (http://www.ironkids.com/) race at St. Petersburg.  This is  a new race series for kids and the race organization put on a great show with clinics for the kids prior to race day.  

I worked the transition area, helping the kids to get set-up and also figuring out which one's were going to need a little extra assistance come race time.

Tim was out for his morning jog and his route brought him right to the race site - where I set my hook and reeled him in, slapped a volunteer t-shirt on him and put him to work.  He did great, showing a most sincere interest in making sure the kids were well taken care of and providing a little extra in the way of race tips.

There were three races that morning.  8:00am was the Seniors race, ages 12 - 15.  Some of these kids had equipment that was better than anything I'll ever own... time trial bikes with disc wheels and aero helmets.   It's odd to see the mix of these kids, everything from these semi-pro youngsters to those on BMX bikes with knobby tires who are here for their first triathlon experience.  At least these kids were more capable and their race was executed without much ado.

Next up, at 9:00am were the Intermediate triathletes, ages 9 - 11.  No disc wheels or aero helmets here, but still a few lovely little (and I do mean little) Trek bikes!  The volunteers had to provide a little more assistance to some of these athletes.  It's hard to put a technical shirt on when you've just come out of the swim so we helped pull shirts down, or get bikes off the rack while the kids put on their shoes.  Again, not much ado with this race either.

And the best is always last.  At 10:00 am were the Juniors, ages 7 to 10.  USAT rules apply to the ages, meaning that if you turn 7 at any time during the year, you'll race as a 7 year-old - so some of these tots were still 6 years old... and just learned how to tie their shoe laces!  It took all the volunteers we had to manage the chaos that was this race.  Surprisingly, all the kids were able to find their bikes when they came in from the swim.  But this time, not only did we have to dress them, we tied their shoelaces, and buckled their helmets.  We even assisted with the occasional emotional meltdown and got every kid out onto the bike course.  Some of these bikes were barely 18 inches tall, most were BMX trick-style bikes, Stingray bikes with banana seats, streamers from handlebars and one with training wheels.  

My favorite athletes in this bunch included the little boy who sat down in transition to put on not only his shoes and socks, but knee pads and elbow pads!  Another was a tiny 6 year old, full of energy and not tall enough to reach my hips. But he was focused as he sped out onto the run course.  Yet another was a boy who just could not run with his bike out of transition... he lost his balance and fell over at least 3 times.

As these little athletes returned from the bike, many of them could not find where they racked their bikes.  So, we helped them rack somewhere,  got their helmets off, and got them pointed out to the run.

By the time our volunteer day was done, it was after 11:00am and by now I was starving!  Time to go home, shower, grab a snack and try to get some Fred-like relaxation for the rest of my day.

Sleeping in St. Pete

What is it about airline travel that makes my hair feel like an oil-slick? No intense, sweaty workout makes me feel that greasy. I was already feeling like this when I landed in Miami, that other country southeast of Tampa. At least it felt like another country. I think I was the only one on the plane or at the Miami Airport who did NOT speak Spanish. That's on my list of things to start soon - but that's another story.

Upon touchdown in Tampa, the elderly woman across the aisle from me did the sign of the cross - fearful, but thankful for a safe landing.

It wasn't long before I was off the plane and headed down to baggage claim - with a quick stop to the ladies room. That's when I was hit by that moment of panic when I noticed that my company-issued Blackberry was missing. My foggy brain was slow trying to put the facts together. I was on the plane and called Tim to let him know we landed. Heading for the tram, I used it to check my email. How could I have lost it in that short distance?

I left the ladies room and headed up the escalator to get to Point A to retrace my steps when a voice behind me asked "did you drop this" and my Blackberry was suddenly in view. I looked to see who this kind samaritan was only to find that it was my evil boyfriend who had snuck up behind me and lifted it like a practiced pick-pocket. No kiss for him!!

He did try to make it up to me by taking me out to dinner, and then we went home and watched a movie, and went to bed early. I just got up... after 12 hours of sleep.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sleepless in Las Vegas

It's too bad I'm not into the one-armed bandit, betting on red or black, or any other means of spilling all my money into the hands of the casino's. Instead, I'm spending 12.5 hours in the Las Vegas Airport. And it's not even that great an airport. Others airports have nice restaurants to hang out in or lots of shopping. But, for a Vegas airport, this one is rather boring.

And monotonous. Yes, it has slot machines down every corridor. And that constant chiming and beeping has given me a headache. Off to Hudson's News I went to buy some Tylenol. $4.30 for 6 pills - so much for not spilling my money.

Anyway, here's why you should never fly American Airlines between Tampa and Las Vegas...

You would think that having a hub in Dallas would give you plenty of optional flights. Thinking I had a full day of work in Vegas today, the only flight available after 5pm (or even 2:10pm for that matter) was 11:00pm. But my day ended up early... really early. I called Orbitz for Business, who said that there were flights with available seats - but I should go to the airport and get on the standby list to avoid the change fee ($150 + the difference in airfare = total of about $450). I even called American Airlines but they said my ticket was booked through US Airways and that I should call them. Of course they sent me back to American because American currently held the ticket. (Is it any wonder the airline industry is in such turmoil)?

Upon arrival at the airport, I was informed that the two other flights both had their standby lists closed - having over 30 standby passengers. I really had no desire to head back to a casino and lose my life savings so I thought I'd stay here get some work done.

I worked on my work work, and researched airline fees and policies (to make sure this doesn't happen again), figured out how to do this blog thing, and still lost $$$ in the airport. The food is pricey and not all that great. There's no real restaurant to speak of (Chili's ToGo doesn't count). And it was NOT fun having to have both lunch and dinner here. Actually, the Wolfgang Puck Express had a pretty darned good veggie pizza.

Dinner was at "Burke in the Box". Apparently "Burke" is some celebrity chef and I was told that the food was great. So, I headed there at 6pm and ordered a chicken panini. It was delivered... along with a To Go box and a big hint to leave - seems they closed at 6:15pm. What?! No matter, the wireless connection was terrible and they didn't even have unsweetened tea. I ate the fries and hours later I ate the insides of the sandwich. Even the panini bread was kind of hard. And I paid $18 for that!! More spillage...