Sitting in the Denver airport, surfing the internet on the spouse’s laptop. Our Spokane flight was overbooked and we volunteered to be bumped. We are now the proud holders of two free round-trip tickets for anywhere in the continental U.S. Huzzah! The downside: I won’t see my cat for an additional two hours. And I really miss her. But free tickets were too good to pass up.

I survived so far:

• one full day of airport sitting, including a snowstorm at our layover in Denver, and a 45-minute wait on the plane, because Denver Air Traffic Control was mad at the plane at the front of our take-off line and decided not to let any of us go.
• one graduation day, including tedious commencement service in which the audience was not allowed to clap, yell, or otherwise greet their graduate as said graduate walked across the stage. Midwesterners really need to learn how to do a graduation service.

Other highlights from the trip so far:

• Saw my cousin Todd, and my cousin Eric and his girlfriend Karen on Sabbath. Hung out with them in the afternoon, and managed not to get completely lost at the local nature trail despite Zak’s best efforts to lead us into the middle of the swamp.
• Went to the freakin’ late showing of “Iron Man” on Saturday night. Learned new word: nerdgasms, which perfectly describes the sounds I heard as all the nerds in the theater reacted to their favorite parts of the movie.
• Ate breakfast at Bob Evans restaurant, at the recommendation of Eric and Karen. Tried the biscuits and gravy breakfast with biscuits, egg on top, then gravy poured all over with side of home fries. Yum. Then finished off the spouse’s cinnamon hot cakes filled with vanilla custardy cream topped with whipped cream. So good: like a cinnamon roll, but with pancakes.
• Tonight: the Old Spaghetti Factory in Indianapolis.?

?

It deserves three exclamation marks. I am officially on vacation. I was so very ready to be out of the office. For a whole week. Hurrah!

According to this NYT article, it’s no longer taboo for the under-35 set to share salary information. It’s us against the companies, so to speak, so the more information we know, the better we can bargain for raises and well-paying jobs.

I’ve surfed salary.com and jobbank to research salary information for people with jobs similar to mine, but I haven’t shared salary information with friends, family or co-workers. Of course, if I told friends salary information, I’d have to admit how much less than the spouse I make. And that would be depressing.

From Stevan’s funky Friday email last week: an engineer’s guide to cats. I laughed. I laughed some more. There may even have been some giggling on the part of the spouse as he watched over my shoulder.

I have returned from conferenceland, where I sanguined myself: I gave out business cards, I collected business cards, I introduced myself to people I don’t know, I sat in the smoky bar and drank cranberry juice while everyone else got drunk, I spoke up multiple times during the roundtable discussion, I followed the advice of a book I recently read “Never Eat Alone” and never ate alone. In short, I networked. I think it’s the most sanguine I’ve been since I worked on the Collegian. And I’m worn out. The cat, the cherry tree blooming so beautifully in the back yard and the spouse are rejuvenating me. It’s good to be home. And tonight: free food at the alumni spaghetti feed. Maybe I have a little bit of sanguine left to brave the crush of people at said dinner. Anyone else coming?

Happy Birthday to the spouse, who is, for a very brief time, the same age as I am.

Perhaps it is fitting that on tax day I sifted through my accumulated junk mail and opened . . . a pre-paid cremation offer. Seriously. The Neptune Society wants me to know that “for a variety of reasons, more and more people are choosing cremation over tarditional funeral arrangements.” According to this cream-colored with a lovely 1/2 inch floral sidebar letter, “cremation just makes sense.” And if I complete the reply slip to find out more information about Neptune pre-need cremation plans, I can WIN? a pre-paid cremation.

First the AARP wants me to join, and now I’m getting offers for cremation.

A walk in the sunshine (currently 71 degrees), wearing sandals (yeah, the mini-blisters prove that I need to break the feet back into summer footwear), with the spouse (who claimed it’s shorts weather) + POGish smoothies = happiness.

I was looking at flights to attend my cousin’s graduation here in a few weeks and decided to check train prices. I looked previously at taking a train to Minnesota to see the goddess this fall, but it’s not much cheaper than flying and a lot longer. I figured a short trip to Colorado might be a better fit. It turns out that I would have to travel to Portland (4 hours 35 minutes), then to Sacramento (15 hours 50 minutes), and from there to Denver (32 hours 34 minutes), just to get from here to Denver. Since it’s only about 15 hours to drive to my destination a couple hours north of Denver, it would be assinine to spend 2 1/2 days on a train when I could drive it in 15 hours.

I’m flabbergasted that our U.S. train system is so inefficient. Why should I go to 21 hours west California just so I can go 15 hours east of me to Colorado.

I loved traveling in Europe, where we could take a train just about anywhere. We went from England, to France, to Spain, to Switzerland, to Venice, and all the way across Italy on a train. And it was easier to do that than to get from my house to Denver.

I guess I’ll stick to flying or driving. In other news, most airlines are now charging for the second piece of checked luggage and gas prices are above $3.50.