In the interest of seeing both sides ...

 T.S.A. Now Finds Itself on the Defensive - This Land - NYTimes.com 

Decent article on airport security, for those of you who might think that I'm crazily anti-TSA. If all security could sound this competent, I might be more patient with them. Unfortunately I rarely see this level of professionalism. I get agents who snap at you when you're polite, and agents who mumble and roll their eyes when you skip one of the 10,000 different things to remember going through security . And no one who looks alert for suspicious behavior, I just see people who look like they're counting down until quitting time.

End rant.

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This is why we wanted to fly

I can't believe how little she used to be! I was just going through old pictures on my computer, and came across ones from the first day we got her.  If only she were still this little; she would definitely fit as an airplane carry-on.

Rebel Puppy

Molly tried to blockade me out of the office today!  I went to the kitchen to grab something, and when I got back I could only open the office door about a foot-- she had rolled the Kong up next to the door, so it was acting like a doorstop.  Thankfully I could reach my foot around and kick it out of the way-- just barely!

Tomorrow will be the moment of truth... Will Southwest think that she can "stand up and turn around comfortably"?  We had a bit of a debacle with the kennel we were going to use, so now Stefano's boss is going to take her if we can't take her with us.  What a disaster...

Molly the one-eared puppy

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Tomorrow will be a roller coaster...

I am incredibly excited to be going to Chicago for Thanksgiving!  I get to relax for almost a week, see family, sleep in, etc.  I know once I get out of the airport tomorrow night, I'll breathe a massive sigh of relief.

I'm dreading going through security again, especially on one of the busiest travel days of the year.  At least we made the decision to travel Tuesday instead of Wednesday, so hopefully it won't be quite as crazy.  I wish we could have driven, but we just don't have enough time off work to spend a day and a half driving each way.

I'll have my fingers crossed that the trend of easy-going, friendly Southwest employees continues.  We'll be at their mercy as to whether or not Molly will be allowed to come with us, since they have to decide if she can "stand and turn around comfortably".  We do have reservations and a backup plan to board her in case they won't let us take her with us, but I really don't want to do that-- in my opinion, she's too young to be left at a kennel, and I'm worried that she'll be upset with us for a long time (and possibly lose some of the trust she's gained in us [she is a shelter dog after all, and who knows what abandonment she experienced before we got her]) and maybe even get sick from the other dogs.  So I'm being stubborn and I'm trying to keep her with us.  We'll see.

Of course, having a dog through security will be OH SO MUCH FUN.  Maybe the TSA will choose her for extra screening and then kick us out because she won't hold still for the full-body scan.

Still, it will all be worth it to see our families.  And all I'll have to worry about after Tuesday is if they'll let us bring her back!  Molly, don't grow next week.  Please!

SERIOUSLY??

The TSA checkpoint in Sioux Falls has a slideshow of 9-11 images playing.  Really, TSA, really?  Blatant fear-mongering?  Abusing an American tragedy to get us to willingly give up our rights?  Invasive searches don't make us safer.  A more intelligent, adaptive security system would make us safer.  Profiling would make us safer.  Better trained TSA agents (think more like detectives and less like cops) would make us safer.

Seriously, seeing that made me sick to my stomach.  I know this it's a clique, but the terrorists have won.  We as Americans can't travel across the country without being groped by a stranger or having a stranger look under our clothes?  With no justification other than random selection?  How about suspicious-looking people get extra screening?  TSA gave a THREE YEAR OLD CHILD a pat-down in Tennessee.  Disgusting.  If you're selected for the extra screening and refuse (choosing to leave the airport instead), you're subject to a $10,000 fine.  How is this not violating our fourth amendment rights?  How about our eighth amendment rights?  How about investigating people who choose to not fly instead of being searched, instead of imposing a ridiculously high fine?

Why do we have to give up our dignity to fly?  It makes me sick.

Oh America

Just drove by the world's only corn palace. This country cracks me up.

On my way to Sioux Falls, then flying home tomorrow afternoon. Froze my butt off working, but got what we needed done. I think.

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Home

I miss my puppy...

It really feels like I've been traveling all fall. In reality it's just been four trips about four days each, but they've all been scheduled, cancelled, postponed, etc so many times that I basically had all of the last three months blocked out for it.

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The Ups and Downs of Travel

I'm in South Dakota for work again. I flew into Sioux Falls today, and I'll be driving with a colleague to St Lawrence, SD tomorrow morning for some gravel road inspections, and then staying in Huron, SD tomorrow night (an hour away from the work site) since it's the only civilized hotel nearby. My travel today has been swinging back and forth between excellent and terrible...

Since I had a morning flight, I just had Stefano drop me off at the airport before he headed to work. We only have one car, and Stefano usually takes the bus to work, but when I'm gone he has to drive so he can come home at lunch and rescue the puppy for an hour. We managed to get to the airport without hitting traffic!

I got chosen to go through the body scanner, which irritates the heck out of me, but it's not like I really have a choice (pat-downs are just as invasive in my opinion). The cranky TSA agent asked me if I had anything in my pockets, and I said "no" since I usually don't put anything in there. But no, I happened to have a hair clip, which apparently they could see on the scanner, and even after I showed her what it was, she had to do a partial pat-down of my right leg since that's the pocket it was in. Oh and she glared at me when I realized that I had something in my pocket, and everything she said to me was so mumbled I had to have her repeat it at least once.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine posted an article on facebook about Israeli airport security vs. ours. Their's requires trusted, intelligent, and well-trained employees, whereas ours have trained monkeys with no free will and no ability to use their own judgment. Ugh.

But I survived. I don't exactly have any choices; I have to travel for work, and I live too far away from my family to drive everywhere. I tried not to let it bug me, and headed off to my gate.

I was at my gate about two hours before my flight, but the last flight was just leaving from my gate, so it was empty and I snagged a seat by a power outlet and got an hour of work done on my laptop. Bought a tasty salad from the deli kiosk by the gate, and got on my flight.

Which turned out to only be about half-full. I also managed to end up on the one daily Denver-to-Sioux-Falls flight, which is on a real plane (Airbus A319) instead of a regional jet. RJs are cramped and loud, and it takes forever to board since everyone insists that their huge bag will fit in the undersized overhead bins, and they almost never do. Or the person has to try it facing every possible direction before it fits.

So I enjoyed an entire row to myself, had a chance to watch some TV on my laptop (I brought DVDs), got a whole can of soda since there were so few of us, and got off the plane quickly after they hooked up the jet bridge.

Navigated the airport (which I know by heart since I've been here five times in the last 13 months) and grabbed my bag, and called my hotel for the "shuttle".  "Oh, I'll call Yellow Cab for you".  For some reason, it took them half an hour to get there to pick me up (during which I'm standing outside in 30 degree weather), the cab they sent was a relic from the 80s, and the cabbie insisted on "making small talk" aka grilling me about where I was from, why I was traveling, if I had been there before, etc.  Despite the fact that I was reading something on my phone so he would get the idea that I didn't want to talk to him.  Oh, and he didn't open the trunk for me (even though I had two bags and a purse), and didn't offer once (at the airport or at the hotel) to help me with my bags.  Seriously, the hotel seems to have contracted the cheapest, laziest cab company to do their airport pickups, and must pay them next to nothing to have them treat me this badly.  And pet peeve: free airport taxis is not the same thing as a free airport shuttle.  Don't advertise a shuttle if all you do is call the shadiest cabbie in town and tell them to get over the the airport whenever it's convenient for them.

To top it all off, the hotel is old, walls are badly patched, the desk lamp is halfway broken, and there is road construction going on outside.  Lovely.  That's ok; I might have revenge. We're supposed to stay here Thursday night, too, but I just emailed our travel agent to see if anywhere else in town has rooms and a hotel shuttle.
P.S. The front desk had a jar of cookies (Country Inns usually do), and one of them had a bite taken out of it.  No joke.

Go Stress GO!

Heh. That title was supposed to be "Go Stress Go" but I think I like it better with the last word "shouting".

I was going to whine and rant about how overwhelming everything is right now. But I decided against it. Life is ok. It's almost Thanksgiving, and with or without my husband and/or the dog, I'll be seeing my family (long story revolving around the dog).

So I'll leave you with a picture and two videos. I am obsessed with this puppy's yawns. Half the time she lets out a cute little squeak when she yawns, too.

Just... just... let me sleep....

Morning

Is there a better way to start the morning than with a sleepy puppy?

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Sigh

I guess thats what I get for listening to music on headphones while I'm working... Molly was sitting on an old towel next to my chair, entertaining herself by watching me and then chasing her tail. I looked away for no more than a minute and a half, and when I looked back, she was sitting on her towel next to two piles of puppy puke, looking at me like "I have no idea where that came from".  Seriously, it was surreal how quickly she puked and then went back to normal.

What's even funnier is that I'm convinced she made herself so dizzy from chasing her tail that she threw up.

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Can't they invent something that stops puppies from growing up?

More randomness and puppy pictures.  I'm making broiled asparagus, baked chicken leg quarters, and heating up the mashed butternut squash I made yesterday.  And I made pumpkin squares for dessert.  Mmm...  Make sure you scroll all the way down to see the cute video I took too.

What is this snow stuff?  Can I come in now?  Can you at least let me eat the leaves?  Puh-lease?

Snow!! Probably hard to see...  It was our first snow of the year, which usually happens in October.  We're supposed to be getting more tomorrow which might actually stick.

If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.  There's actually a story behind this...  Stefano's neck hurt really bad, so I put nice warm Molly next to it.  It felt good apparently, so he wrapped her around his neck.  Surprisingly she didn't really mind.

See, she does sleep in her crate sometimes!  I just usually don't photograph it.

This is when she was much littler and still had pointy ears.  And I used to let her sit under my desk.

1. Cute Halloween bandana.  2. Trying to chew on the futon.

1. Still cute Halloween bandana.  2.  SO LITTLE!

Much better

Happiness is clean laundry.  Happiness is a fridge full of delicious tasty food.  Happiness is a clean kitchen.

Finally had time to go to the grocery store tonight and do some laundry.  And I even came home and did some cooking for later this week-- double mushroom broth with tofu and soba noodles (mmm quasi-japanese) and orange-scented mashed butternut squash.  Except I had to make mandarin orange scented squash because Safeway didn't have oranges.  At all.  Except for some really sad (i.e. green) organic ones.  Tons of grapefruits, lemons, limes, etc. But no normal oranges.  Is there some sort of orange blight no one told me about???

What's excellent is that I made it all in less than two hours, including clean-up.  What was also awesome is that I used so many kitchen gadgets.  And not just for the sake of using them-- they actually made it a lot easier!  Take the squash for instance:  I used the pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time (10 mins versus 20 or more [remember I'm at altitude so everything takes longer to boil here]), the juicer to juice the mandarin oranges, and my microplane zester to zest the oranges.  Oh, and the immersion blender to puree the squash and mix everything together.  Happy Carrie.

And I'll leave you with puppy pictures.  Gravity is cruel on a puppy when you just want to lay on top of a heap of sheets and towels.

Ack

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I've been neglecting you.  To say that life has been hectic lately would be a massive understatement.  Hopefully I can recover a bit tonight...

Love,
Carrie

Election Day!

It's going to be really tough to concentrate today with the election going on.  Stefano and I filled out our mail-in ballots last night, and I just have to drop them off at our polling place some time today.

We have probably the closest Senate race in the country, as well as a Democrat and a third-party candidate neck and neck for governor.  If the Republican candidate doesn't take at least 10%, the Republican party basically gets demoted to a minor party in the state of Colorado.

I'm not sure there's even a point in checking obsessively; I doubt that either one of those elections will actually be decided today, especially with the number of people like us who vote by mail.

Of course, there's also Denver Initiative 300 to watch, which reads:

Shall the voters for the City and County of Denver adopt an Initiated Ordinance to require the creation of an extraterrestrial affairs commission to help ensure the health, safety, and cultural awareness of Denver residents and visitors in relation to potential encounters or interactions with extraterrestrial intelligent beings or their vehicles, and fund such commission from grants, gifts and donations?


I wish I was kidding.

We also have a ton of constitutional and statutory amendments which would cripple the state's ability to assess fees or borrow money.  The Tea Party is strong with this one...

Molly loves to hide

Is it normal for dogs to love enclosed spaces this much?  Molly loves crawling into tiny spots-- closets, under the couch, under the futon, under my desk, etc.  I have the opening under the futon blockaded with pillows, mostly because when she goes under there, I can't get her back out (the way in is small enough that she has to squeeze over or under it, so I can't pull her out without hurting her).

So she decided to climb on top of the pillow barricade to sleep.  Weirdo.