Oh, the joys of flight.

So I'm sitting here in the Vancouver Airport awaiting my 10:45pm flight. It is now 11:30pm. Which is real close to my original flight time. Fun, fun! Have you ever had to wait for an entire 777 airplane's passenger list to be reticketed? I have! And let me tell you, it is as joyful as they say it is. Standing in line listening to 'experts' discuss what can be done to improve air travel. Guess what? Shut up! Nobody cares what you think. Why is it that it is always the idiots who express their opinion to anyone and everyone who are the loudest people on the planet? Just let me stand in line, and get my new ticket, without listening to you prattle on with your conspiracy theories and witicisms. Okay my rant is done, for now.

I have a feeling that we won't be making our 11:50 departure time either. Oh well, another nail in the coffin regarding the theory of Allison's that Vancouver is evil.

Vancouver however is not evil. I look forward to returning in two weeks to do this once again. Today I had some time after the training to explore Vancouver a bit. I drove back to my hotel and took a few pictures because, guess what? It actually does get sunny here. Go figure. The mountains I saw two weeks ago reappeared, albeit covered mostly in clouds.

I came back from Langley hospital by try-roading (A term of Allison's for trying whatever road you come across to see where you can go.) Why is it that the view from a fast moving highway is one of the best places for pictures. I kept trying to find a place to stop and take some good photos. After the hotel I headed out to Port Moody to find a Harley Dealership to purchase a pin. I found the shop easily, however they did not have a pin. They did have some great shirts, but they were out of XL's in almost all styles. It is always the way. Oh well. It was a nice shop with alot of the new 2004's. After the trip to Port Moody I took a trek along 7A West to downtown to look for the Vancouver Hooters. The road it was supposed to be on was fraught with dead ends and one ways. So I did not find it. I headed up Granville street and took a right onto Broadway to head towards Marine Dr. I stopped at a little park that overlooked the city, took some pictures, and made a call home to wish my Mom a Happy Birthday. I went from there to the University of British Columbia and Marine Drive. That is were I got some nice sunset photos.

And finally I got to the airport. That was around 5:30pm. The airport here is very nice lots of little shops and restaurants. I took a seat on the level overlooking the food court and went to work finishing my latest Dirk Pitt Adventure Shock Wave. A very good novel by Clive Cussler. I'd like to read all his books in order but haven't taken the time to find a comprehensive list and stick to it. I just pick one of them off the shelf at random and read them. But the good thing about a Dirk Pitt Adventure is that you don't need to read them in order. They all have the same basic plot devices and proven formula. They are what I like to call TV Books. These are books that require little to no concentration while reading. That, and you can picture the characters vividly and the action plays out in ones head like a TV show while you read.

The plane finally took off at 12:15pm. We landed in Toronto at 7:35am. My flight began boarding at 8:05am. I ran down to get my bags, waited furiously in line till my bag came out, knowing that if it didn't come out by 8:15am I would be stuck till noon. Once that came out I rushed to the gridlock of customs. I was with an English woman who said, well looks like time to put on the 'English Charm'. I don't seem to see her on the plane anywhere. Looks like American Ingenuity won out. I just slipped through one of the mazes into a group of Asian passengers who weren't paying attention, got up to the front of the line and dashed through customs threw my bag ont he belt and flew through security, ran down to the tram (it is now 8:30am, flight leaves at 8:40am) The tram sat around waiting while I practically had an aneurysm. Finally with what seemed like hours we were under way. Once in the satellite terminal I was able to run to the gate. The last person on board, but I made it! On my way home to Boston! Yeah! And party weekend ahead. But first a little nap.

P.S. - So, it turns out that, that was not the end of the story. Despite my fancy footwork in Toronto I was not fast enough to get my bags on the same flight as the one I was on. Nope my bags were retrieved from my front porch on Sunday morning at 3:45AM. Apparently, the slip for my name and address was written over with the address of another lucky soul whose bags also dislike traveling on the same flights. At least my phone number was readable and the courier company called and we got things straightened out.

P.P.S. - Turns out my English friend was able to use her 'English Charm' (and some American ingenuity) to make the flight as well.

Boston Pizza?

So, here in Vancouver there is a strange thing that I just had to experience. Boston Pizza. They are everywhere. I went to Boston Pizza last night for dinner just to go there and check it out. Expecting a Boston themed restaurant I was surprised not to find any Boston decorations or anything. It's just them name of the place. It made me laugh to see, Boston Pizza rather than New York or Chicago Pizza, because frankly pizza is not what I associate with Boston, no matter how many times I've been to the North End. The only references I saw to Boston were on the menu, I had the Boston Royal Pizza, (Pepperoni, Ham, Peppers, Mushrooms, Olives, Onions and Shrimp.) Weird. They also have a Boston Extreme Heat sauce for the wings, which were not at all as good as the wings at Montana's (Which by the way was themed like a lodge in Montana.)

Despite the false advertising of this restaurant having anything to do with Boston the pizza was actually decent.

I'm in Fogville

I'm in Fogville. Every morning it is dark, every night it is dark, every afternoon, well you know the rest. I am in Vancouver BC and it has been foggy and cold each day so far, oh and its rained for a change too. So I've not been uploading images this week. I'm on a dial-up too and I'm not able to really upload much of anything. So I tried to take another picture from my hotel window again. If you would like a big grey image I would upload it, but however it's not much fun.

I bought an umbrella. I rented movies Charlie's Angels 2 and Bulletproof Monk. I can rent in BC now from Blockbuster. Both movies were okay, lots of crashes and fights, guys movie stuff. (i.e. Movies that make Allison's eyes roll.)

I found a new chicken wing sauce that is my new favorite. Honey Garlic! I had dinner at a restaurant called Montana's last night and had chicken wings that were fried in cornmeal then coated with Honey Garlic sauce. They were awesome!

Hopefully the sun will come out so I can get pictures like the one above (Taken from Weather.com).

Where is Drew?

Drew has been mysteriously missing from the Blog for a few days now..... hmmm..... That must mean that he's back in Evil Vancouver again!!

Things have been quiet around here since Neil & Andrea's wedding. Drew and I went to a VERY interesting open house at a home for sale in Grafton this weekend. And not good interesting.... it was no-work-had-been-done-in-this-house-since-1950 Interesting. At least we got a good laugh out of it!

I was off to my first meeting of the new year for the Zeta Chapter at Merrimack College Sunday evening. It was good to see the girls again and to see them all excited for Recruitment.

Last night I was at PetSmart in the cat room. That was fun. There are lots of great cats there, if you are interested in getting a sweet little kitty. I've totally fallen in love with a kitty named Zephyr who is at the shelter. But we have our two boys and that is enough for now.

Well I guess I've rambled enough... but that's what is up with the Bennett/Sparks Household these days.

The Kieran Ridge Band

Have you heard of The Kieran Ridge Band? If not, you probably soon will. Kieran Ridge is a classmate of mine from the Saint Anselm College. He contacted me today asking for help because his band. The Kieran Ridge Band is in a contest where they could win the chance to play a large concert. His band is way out in the lead, but let's keep him there okay!

I for one have already downloaded the song, and will probably do so many more times, as it kicks ass. Kieran has a great voice and the song is awesome. Please help The Kieran Ridge Band by going to this website http://www.musicforamerica.org/music/aid/516 and downloading his song "Lonesome Traveler". You can also download another song of his called "Laborer's Blues". Also go to Kieran's website to find out more about The Kieran Ridge Band.

Comments part Deux

Okay comments are working again, however any old comments have been lost. Sorry.

Comments

Some of you may notice that the comments section has been removed from the blog. That is because Blogspeak is no more. At least for users that host their blog through the free service of blogger. I will take a look at finding a new commenting service. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.

Neil and Andrea's Wedding

Andrea and Neil walk down the aisle

The Wedding Cake

Some Fancy Boots

Cutting the Cake

The Bride feeds the Groom

The Groom feeds the Bride.

The Happy Couple

Derek shares his excitement!

Me and Allison

U2 Picture

Steve and Derek

Derik and Sarah. (Derik stop talking when I take pictures.)

Yesterday was the wedding of our good friends Neil and Andrea. What a fun time! The wedding was at Saint Mary's in North Attleboro. I did the prayer of the faithful. Then after the wedding ceremony the reception was at the Holiday Inn in Mansfield. We were able to see the Pat's win the AFC Championship before the first course of the meal. Gonna be another exciting SuperBowl for New England Fans. Allison and I sat with Derik and Sarah, Jimmy and Kathy and Michelle. Dinner and dancing were great fun. Dancing with Derek and Steve is always entertaining. Allison and Michelle both got to take home centerpieces. Wasn't that a great looking cake, it tasted really good too, with hard shelled chocolate covered praliene ice cream. Allison and I wish Neil and Andrea a long and happy life together. Thank you for letting us share the day with you.

Vancouver Update

Today was my last day in Vancouver for my first trip out here for the implementation of the Fraser Health Authority. It was a pretty interesting trip despite the weather and it being very dark most of the time. I did get to see some sun and some stars. Today Smallville was still filming at the hospital and 'i was able to see Tom Welling and Kristen Kyurek (sp) film a scene. I wasn't close enough to hear them but I knew they were filming a scene because there were dozens of people around yelling filming type things like "speed" "action" "rolling" and "cut". I don't know where the camera was but I was right behind them sop the camera was probably behind me and didn't get me in the shot, but who knows stranger things have happened. So watch Smallville on March 2 for episode "Ressurection".

After training I went for a drive down Vancouver's Route one up to a mountian. It was still pretty foggy and lots of clouds but the sun and the clouds made for an interesting photo. Enjoy. Maybe next time I come out her things will be much brighter and I can get some photos of the mountains that I could see from my hotel room for all of 5 mintues.

I also just finished my firefly DVD's. Man that was an awesome show that never should have been cancelled. Hopefully it will live on in a feature film as well as some novels like the buffy books and angel books. I can't wait for the first Firefly book. That will be awesome. Anyway, I'm sitting in the airport and will post this message probably tomorrow when I arrive home. Since I won't be leaving till 11:30pm and won't be arriving untill 10:00am. Bit of a long flight... To say the least.

Smallville in Langley

I'm in Langley BC and this morning when I arrived at Langley hospital I saw that it was transformed into Smallville Medical Center. I learned that Smallville is filmed in Cloverdale BC. That is a little while away from Langley. So it was a rare treat for me to see the film company setting up for a scene that will be part of and episode called "Ressurection" that will be airing here in BC on March 2, 2004.

During lunch I took a walk around the front of the building to see how the productionwas going. And while I was standing there and checking out the set up I took a few pictures. And as I waited I saw the arrival of John Schneider (Jonathan Kent) and Tom Welling (Clark Kent). I even took a picture but I was very far away from them to get a decent photo. But that is them in the red box. The scene that they are filming is a simulated bomb threat and evacuation fromt he Smallville Medical Center. The room that I am conducting training in is right next to the room where all the extras are hanging out. So It's pretty exciting. I guess that many of the hospitals actually susdise their fundrasing by letting film companies film at the hospital. So to everyone I'm training this is pretty old hat to them. But I'm the startstruck one.

I had wondered if I would be seeing any stars while I was in Canada. Seeing as this is an area where this are alot of movies and TV shows being filmed. Here is another site for Smallville.

In Vancouver. Mild and Foggy.

I have arrived in Vancouver. My suitcase has seen better days and was beat up pretty badly on this flight. (I must also mention that this is actually Shelby's suitcase that I've been borrowing. So looks like I owe someone a new suitcase.) There's nothing like getting your suitcase after going through customs in Montreal and finding the entire top wet, pieces hanging off and broken zippers. Unfortunately, or fortunately, when I got to Vancouver the suitcase was dry and the extent of the damage wasn't as severe as I first observed. However when I opened the suitcase in the hotel room I noticed that there was a problem with the zipper and around the zipper were a couple of tears. Not thrilled about that.

I experienced something on this flight that I have never experienced before on a domestic US flight. Body Odor! I'm not talking, hey its a little stinky in here, I'm talking full on, honkin', dirty underwear in the sun all day, STINK. I finally made my flight (ran from security to the gate and just made it. So being the model of shape and health I was sucking wind like nobodies business when I got to my seat. BIG MISTAKE!!! I think I took years off my life with those few gasps in the plane. And then eventually throughout the flight the smell wasn't as strong until the plane landed and these people began to move. Again my sense of smell was assaulted with the diversity of customs that make our land great. What makes me wonder is how can these people adopt the way of life of the gangsta rapper but totally be oblivious of soap, shampoo and deodorant. We just need ODB to rap, "A spritz under the pits is the shiznizits" and maybe the rest of us can breathe easier.

Okay I'm sorry, a five hour flight next to some guy who serenaded me with the sounds of his eating and drinking habits, two babies screaming the entire time, and the stink factor, has made me a bit edgy.

But, I landed safely and the land out hear is beautiful. I'm on the 16th floor overlooking the mountains at every turn. They are awesome. I'll post some photos once the fog clears.

Somebody had a birthday....

Today (well now yesterday) was Allison's birthday. We had a great time at La Caretta. A full write up and photos to follow as soon as I can get them posted. Happy Birthday Allison!!!

Old School

Okay, now that I've stopped laughing at the sight of this photo I can post it. Steve Donohue sent me this image from back in the day. This was taken between junior and senior year when I lived at Arnold's for the summer. I rented a room from some guys in my class while they were home for the summer. I was working at the Saint A's Coffeeshop in the manager's office preparing the new menus and other items. Well, the first night I was staying there all the guys and I went to this Chinese restaurant called the Yee Dynasty to see The Curtis Knight Band. They were a fun band and I remember we kept yelling "Cu-Kni Never Die!" throughout the night. Anyway there must have been a camera around that night because Stevie-D just sent me this photo. Notice the hair length (That was short for me in college). It's pretty scary seeing these old photos.

This was also the first night I was staying at the house and I didn't know everyone that well and all my stuff was in the basement and I was staying upstairs that night or downstairs or something, I can't quite remember (Did I ever mention that I am master of the run-on sentence). I remember that I was heading to the Cape that next morning and the muffler had fallen off of my car the previous day. So the morning after the Curtis Knight Band trip I went out to rig a clothes hanger under the car to keep the muffler on the car for the trip home. Well, I forgot that the car had an alarm, so the minute I touched the clothes hanger to the metal of the car the alarm started going off. A couple of things went wrong at that moment. First, I had just gotten up and it was around 6:00am, I hadn't bothered to shower and get dressed so I was out there in my boxers. Second, I was wedged under the car, (not much clearance under the Volvo). Third it must have rained because I was next to a pretty good sized puddle while I did this. And, most importantly I didn't have the keys with me. They were in the house. So the alarm starts blaring, I try to get up smack my head on the underside of the car, crash down into the puddle. Once I got out from under the car I frantically I tore though the house looking for the keys. First to the room I was sleeping in, then to the basement, then to the upstairs. I don't know who was making more noise me or the car. Finally I found my keys and raced downstairs to shut off the alarm. At this point I took a quick shower grabbed my stuff and headed home for the weekend. When I came back I asked if anyone had heard anything that Saturday morning and unbelievably I had not woken anyone up. So the moral is that Cheap booze and The Curtis Knight Band will help you sleep through anything. Long live The Curtis Knight Band (Which by the way is being reworked and retooled so they won't be playing anywhere till mid 2005)

Hospital and Sky images.

So this is the hospital that I've been working at for the past week. It is a pretty hospital. The rooms for patients are huge suites. There are 40 suites so far, the hospital will be adding more as time goes by too. They are going to be expanding over time. They are still putting the finishing touches on everything and that is a little weird but things seem to be going okay so far. I spent much of the day building reports and other dictionary things. But for lunch I had a really good pulled pork sandwich at a BBQ joint. So it's all good.

This is a shot from the car while I was driving from the hospital to the hotel. Isn't the sky awesome. If it wasn't for the dust and smog in the air the sunsets and sky would be so incredible. The nights are pretty clear and the moon has been pretty full this week. So that has also been a great sight. Tonight I went to dinner with another specialist Laura to Jaxon's Restraunt. They are a Microbrew. I got a sampler of their beers. 8 little 1 ounce glasses of each beer. A nice assortment. Very tasty. If you go to El Paso I'd stop there for dinner or drinks.

Code Movie?

This morning I was cruising the Sci-Fi.com website rumors section and it looks like Russell Crowe may be tapped to play Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code movie. Read the story here. You can also read the story at Cinema Eye. There is also an entry in the Internet Movie Database.

The Code has been broken.

This morning I finished the Da Vinci Code. It was definitely worth the read. I suggest that you go out, get it and read it. And that is about all that happened today. Not much else to report. Looking forward to heading home. Although, talking to Allison, I think I'd much rather have the weather here than at home. If it wasn't for the lack of trees and grass it would be a good place to stay.

I did go to a neat little place during lunch called the El Paso Connection. They had some fantastic furniture that Marcia would love. (Sorry Marcia, I didn't rent a Uhaul while I was here.) And they had a ton of southwestern stuff. There were many rooms throughout the huge building and each one was covered floor to ceiling with nick nacks, trinkets and all sorts of things. It'd be a neat place to furnish a country home or rustic cabin as well. (Sorry, no picture of the place today.)

Cattleman's Steakhouse

I'm in El Paso with a couple of other specialists for the PSH LIVE (post LIVE, weirdest LIVE trip, ever). Tonight we went to Cattleman's Steakhouse at Indian Cliffs Ranch for dinner. We had a great dinner there. I had a Filet/Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Kabob. Each of us tried this drink made from lemon juice, beer and was served in a salted glass. I forget the name of it, but it was interesting, not something I'd reccomend, but interesting.

I had visited Cattleman's on a previous trip to El Paso, when it was summer. I was able to get some good sunset photos that trip, but tonight it was dark by the time we arrived, so I couldn't get any good photos. Liz took this photo. Thanks Liz! And pretty skillfully too I might add (notice no flash glare.)

Cattleman's Steakhouse has been host to movie sets for films such as Courage under Fire and Ressurection (never heard of it).

I also had my first sighting of Alternator Smokescreen today at Target. I can't wait to get this Transformer. It is so well designed.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting home.

Bob and Tom Show

One of the things I enjoy while I travel around the country is that I am able to hear the Bob and Tom Show. If you get it in your area, listen. They have some funny guests like Tod Snider and Frank Caliendo. You can even listen via the internet. Check out Bob and Tom's website. Be warned the comedy is not for everyone.

From Stormy Boston to Sunny El Paso

So, today I traveled to El Paso. What a long day. Don't get me wrong I enjoy traveling, for the most part. However, today was a rather sucky travel day. Last night I got a call from American Airlines to tell me my flight was cancelled and they had rebooked me. No big deal, in fact it was nice. They asked me what I preferred for seating window or aisle. I prefer aisle. So naturally I ended up in the middle seat for the two legs of the flight.

Oh the dreaded middle seat. I can always tell when the person in front of me will recline their seat. The telltale sign is someone who sits in the seat too hard initially and then rocks it back a bit or even checks the distance of the recline. Or rather I can tell a recliner because that is the person who sits in front of me. As you can tell today wasn't the best day of traveling however it could have been worse. I could have been the lady who was sitting next to me on the flight from Boston to Dallas who was headed to Hawaii. She wasn't going to make her connection and fretted over that the entire three hour flight. (Three hours of a huffing twitchy, fidgety person is my idea of a good time.) And when the plane landed she had 5 minutes to make her next flight. I can tell she doesn't travel often because she hopped out of her seat and started down the aisle. Anyone who has traveled more than once in their lives knows that when the flight ends and the doors open the aisle turns into an artery clogged with slow moving human cholesterol chunks.

So now I'm in the state of Texas, things so far are going well. Check out the nice weather I am having. So glad to be out of the fun New England weather. However I am looking forward to returning home at the end of the week.

My current reading selection is Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code. I'm pretty much almost finished with it. And I started it this morning. So you can imagine how much of my day was on the plane and waiting. The book is a great read. You can find out more about this book at www.thedavincicode.com. I'll have more to say once I finish it.

Ellis at Stone Soup

Last night Allison and I went to Stone Soup to see Ellis Paul. Rachel Davis opened for Ellis and she was quirky and fun. She had a good voice but I couldn't always make out the words. We got her CD so we could listen to her more. While waiting in line we met Audra and Patti.

Audra owns Mad Hatters Bakery in Newport. It is not on main street but you can get muffins there for half of what the main street shops get. So, if you find yourself over by the police station and homeless shelter in Newport look for Mad Hatters and grab your self a muffin and say hello to Audra. We'll certainly be stopping by there when we get a chance to go to Newport.

Another chance meeting while at the concert was Steve Donohue from Saint A's. Steve and I graduated together and worked at Saint A's at the same time. He was in Admissions and I was in PR and Residence Life. It was nice to see Steve and Kristen Skoglund, who is also a Saint A's grad of 1996. It is nice to find out that people are Ellis fans and find out other folk singers that we should go and see. I think we will be back at Stone Soup again real soon. And its wicked easy to get there from North Attleboro. About a 15 minute ride.

Oh yeah, the reason we were there, Ellis. Last night Ellis was alot of fun. I felt that the show was even more of an intimate one than the other night at Club Passim. Not for nothing, but both shows were very good. I guess I just got more excited about this one because Ellis played Roll Away Bed for us. It is a cute little song about sharing the sleeping arrangements with someone who, and I'm not naming any names, is an active sleeper.

Ellis also played 3000 miles which is my personal favorite song, especially with the travel that I do. Sometimes I feel like I've been living out of a suitcase for 14 days. And airplanes are nothing but buses with wings anyways, so it may as well say Greyhound on that American Airlines plane. Can you tell that someone has missed Platinum status 2 years in a row and is a little miffed about it? But anyway, Ellis was great, he invited Rachel and a guitarist Brett, I think his name was, up to play on and unplugged rendition of Let it Be. What a fun evening.

Happy New Year!

This year Allison and I attended a very nice New Year's get together with our friends. The party was hosted by Derek and Michelle. Their friend Mike came and so did Derik and Sarah and Neil and Andrea. Michelle made a great Taco ring from the Pampered Chef line. It was very tasty. Derek burned our tonges to cinders with a couple drops of some cheese dip laced with some crazy hot, hot sauce. My taste buds were fried for a little while. I made two racks of pork ribs that had been in the crock pot slow cooking all day long. When the pieces were removed from the crockpot the bones fell right off the meat.

As Neil can attest to because by the time he arrived the crockpot contained many bones and a mere hint of the meat that had been on them. As the night continued we pulled out the 20th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit and took up the banners of guys vs. girls. Please note, that in a most sexist manner the boys took the blue piece and the ladies the pink. Also note that our pie was full. That's what happens when you get five brains full of useless knowledge working in unison.

The other photo here is of the other party attenedee Coco, as in Coco Puff. Derek and Michelle's dog. Coco enjoyed the Trivial Pursuit game too. Well, 2004 is off to a start. Allison says it will be a good year for us, I tend to agree. Please check back in with us to see how the year progresses and we hope that you and your family have a safe, happy and healthy New Year too.