Last Minute Deals

Whoever thought that you could never find a good flight deal less than a week before a major holiday are completely mistaken. When I was reviewing my itinerary for my trip home this weekend, I noticed that I had a 4-hr layover in Atlanta on my way up. I don't know why I didn't notice this when I booked the flight. Perhaps I was only looking at the price. The layover itself would be longer than the total amount of time I would have been in the air! So today, I went to the AirTran website to see what they're flight schedule was for the day (and if the layover was really necessary). But when I pulled up the search, I found something even better: A nonstop flight at noon (instead of 8am) for $89!!! There is a $50 fee to change a flight, but since it cost less than the original, I thought I still might save some money and pay only a portion of the $50. While making the change, I thought I'd look into changing my return flight as well (and maybe save even more money, unless they charged another $50 for the second flight). They didn't really have anything for the 29th, but had a nonstop on the 28th, also for $89. It turns out that they only charge the $50 once, so I ended up with a CREDIT of $40.30!

Adventure Lunch

Today, I went on an Adventure Lunch. This is where a small group of us will get together around lunchtime and go on some sort of field trip. Today's trip was to the abandoned barracks building next to our office. Baldwin Park used to be a Navy Training Base. This is the only remaining building from the old base. What makes this building important to C&P, is that we are going to turn this:

Into this:

We (not me, but other people in the company) will turn this old run down building into luxury condominiums. It was pretty dark & creepy in there (hence the "adventure" part). Here are some more picutres:

200

This is my 200th post. Many TV shows need to be on the air for like 10 years before they hit 200 episodes. I've been "on the air (web)" for only 2-1/2 years (since July 2004).

Where Has The Time Gone?!?!

Is it just me, or is this Christmas season shorter than ever! I suppose that since Thanksgiving was EARLY this year, the season is actually LONGER. It sure doesn't feel like it. It's already the second week in Advent. I haven't even STARTED my Christmas shopping. I'm actually at a loss for what to get anyone this year (I'm open to any suggestions). I thought that December was going to be a lighter month as far as things keeping me busy, but it feels just as bad as November. Hopefully things will lighten up in the new year (or maybe they'll just get worse).

Travel, Travel, Travel

As you may have read on my mom's post, I did travel up to Pennsylvania this weekend. My new friend, Skip (who is Becky's brother) invited me to the Penn State/Michigan State football game (at Penn State). I had a lot of fun at the game despite the cold and the dissappointing loss. He lives in Hershey, PA, just down the street from the chocolate factory. If the wind is blowing in just the right direction, you get a nice big whiff of the sweet smell of chocolate. On Sunday night, we went to a Trans Siberian Orchestra concert. If you've never heard them, they play heavy metal Christmas music (and some classical stuff, too). If you recall the Christmas lighting display video that floated around last year, that was a TSO song. The concert was really cool, but also very loud. There were lots of lasers, lights, and fire. I got a nice little driving tour of central PA over the weekend. Between the drive from Baltimore (where I flew in) to Hershey, Hershey to State College on game day, Harrisburg (the capitol), and Lancaster (Amish country). The landscape was quite pretty (being in the mountains and all), though I'm sure it was much prettier a month ago when the colorful leaves were still on the trees. I was surprised to see a pink rose bush right outside of Skip's apartment that still had several blooms on it (including a new bud). I had a really great time this weekend and this little getaway was just what the doctor ordered as work was really starting to stress me out (though I was quite productive the week prior to my departure).

Now I will be traveling again tomorrow morning to come home for Thanksgiving and coming back on Friday (I have a wedding to go to on Saturday). So if you count that all up. In a span of 8 days (fri to fri), I will have been on a plane 4 times. It's a good thing they're all nonstop flights. I'm sure I'll be quite sick of airports and flying by the end of the week. But no worries, I'll have recovered in time for my trip home at Christmas.