Trip to California

Our Trip to California

California was wonderful. I'm tempted to move back. Getting there, however, was quite a trial.

We arrived at Little Rock airport about 5:45 am for our 6:55 am flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. There had been severe storms all night long, but it seemed to have cleared by the time we got to the airport. However, it seems that there were still storms between Little Rock and Dallas, and we had to wait for our captain to reroute us around them. Then they found a mechanical problem in our plane. By this time the passengers for the second flight to Dallas had begun to arrive. When it became apparent we wouldn't make our connection in Dallas for San Jose, we called the airline and rebooked a later flight to San Jose. They started boarding the 8:30 flight, but brought them back when we were told that DFW was closed. So we rebooked again. We couldn't get a flight to San Jose until Friday morning, so we instead booked ourselves on a flight to San Francisco. (SFO had been our first choice when we were originally booking our flights; that itinerary would have been several hundred dollars more for the three of us.) Finally, at 12:05 pm we boarded our flight to DFW. They promised our luggage would also be rerouted to SFO (yeah, right).

The flight to DFW was fine. We had a nice lunch in the airport and waited for our flight to SFO. That flight was delayed about an hour and a half, but no big deal, we thought. The flight was fully booked (more than 70 passengers on the stand-by list by the time we boarded), and we were seated separately. I slept most of the way to SFO.

Our luggage did not make it to San Francisco. It was in San Jose. Our pre-paid rental car was in San Jose.

The luggage office at San Jose would close at 11 pm. The next Airporter bus to San Jose left at 10 pm. It was a 45 minute trip.

We got to San Jose just in time to rescue our luggage. The rental car office would be open until midnight, and we managed to get there just before they closed.

When we left San Jose for Santa Rosa it was a good 12 hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive in San Jose.

The weekend was wonderful. The wine tasting, rehersal dinner and the wedding all were phenomenal, and we had a chance to get to know Ken's family better. We visited Jack London State Park (which encompasses his ranch and the home where he and his wife lived) and Coit Tower. We drove around San Francisco before a superb dinner at Alioto's (thank you, Natalie!) and heading back to San Jose. Our flights home were on time and uneventful. The photo on the left is the Golden Gate from Land's End; the one on the right is the Bay Bridge and Ferry Building from Coit Tower.

What I'm Reading
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (#3 Dresden Files)

What I'm Knitting
Prototype stole with Red Heart Super Saver.
Skirt with Takhi Torino (for Mom).

Where I'm Going
Arkansas Writers Conference, first weekend in June, in Little Rock.

Vacation's over; back to work tonight.

A Little of This, a Little of That

We're off to California this week to see my nephew Casey married. We'll have four days in the California Wine Country/Russian River area.

Now for a writing concern...

There seems to be some confusion among writing conference presenters (not singling out anyone specific) regarding active/passive voice and transitive/intransitive verbs. The opposite of an active (action?) verb is not a passive verb.

Voice has to do with where the action of the verb is directed. An active sentence is John hit the ball. A passive sentence is The ball was hit by John.

Verbs are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive means action. Both the sentences above use transitive verbs. Intransitive refers to verbs of being. Mary enjoyed the ball game. This sentence is in active voice, but uses an intransitive verb.

I just grit my teeth at conferences when presenters say, "Use action verbs, not passive ones." That's like saying "Eat Granny Smith apples, not Valencia oranges."

There's my ranting for the day/week/month...

Apologies for the dearth of posts. I've been very busy with Spinetinglers work, and working nights still gets everything topsy-turvey. Of course, if I were working full time days, I'd have just as little time and energy for other activities.

Interesting news

One of the books I edited for Spinetingler's last summer, The Second Tour, has been chosen as a text for Sociology classes at the United States Air Force Academy this coming semester. Wow!

I'm gimping around these days -- a severe (worst I've ever had) leg cramp (doctor called it a muscle spasm) resulted in a torn muscle in my calf. I spent all weekend on muscle relaxants, but it'll be a while before the tear heals. I love it -- 8 years in martial arts with no major injuries, but a leg cramp while watching TV puts me on a cane for the foreseeable future. So much for my plans to add a new exercise routine to my weight loss program.

Speaking of weight loss, I didn't gain nearly as much as I expected to over the holidays. That's no excuse, I know, but still, not gaining is still a good thing. I intend to get back onto my Weight Watchers program, hoping to lose another 50 or so pounds this year. Then again, not regaining the weight would be ok. (I don't want to sabotage myself by setting unreachable goals.)

The brochure for the Arkansas Writers Conference came last week, with the prompts for their contests. Once my head is clear (muscle relaxants do that) I'll see about entering one or some of them. I will be attending, needless to say.

Another New Year

Well, so much for blogging more frequently last year. I sort of dropped off the face of the internet it seems since June.

But now it's a new year and a good time to start things afresh. Encouragement about regular (at least weekly) blogging wouldn't hurt, if only to know someone out there is reading.

For now, let me send best wishes for a joyous holiday season (no matter which group of winter holidays you observe) and a healthy and prosperous 2009.

Hope to hear from you (I know you're out there, though I can't hear you breathing).