iPhxne What?

I've wanted to get an iPhone for years.  However, I never wanted to pay the extra money for the data plan that has to go along with it. When the iPhone 4 was announced I wanted to get one of those really bad. If I would have been eligible for upgrade when it was released I probably would have gone ahead and done it.  However, I wasn't eligible until this February. That is only a few months away from June (the month in which apple has announced and/or released every iPhone) so I was just going to wait.

A few months ago my current phone (Nokia e71x) started randomly restarting itself or just completely turning off. It was a minor annoyance.  Then it got worse. At the hospital when our baby was born I snapped a picture with my cell phone and tried to email it to my Mom and Sister.  I tried 3 or 4 times and halfway through the message every time it would restart.  It was so frustrating.  Sometimes it will get fits of constant restarting.  On the way to Vegas it kept turning itself off.  In Vegas it somehow killed the battery at 10am and I couldn't get back to my room to charge it until late that night.  I assume it had been restarting itself all morning because the battery was fully charged when I left the room. I could list other examples, but you get the point.  I am going to be traveling more in the next few months, so I need a cell phone that will be a little more dependable.

More Rain

Friday evening it started raining. Then the tornado sirens started going off. We had a bad storm headed right for us. Most of the night we watched the news. They said a funnel cloud was spotted near the airport just a few miles away. We thought for sure it was going to get nasty, so we waited for the wind to come. It really never did, though we did get some hail. We've had several hail storms over the last few days. Anyway, it never stopped raining Friday night. It is now Sunday evening, and it is still raining. There is water everywhere. Anyplace that can be flooded, is. At church this morning we had to drive through 8 inches of water to get into the parking lot. I'm not sure how much rain we've had so far. There is no point in looking at that number because it won't even be close to the total we have by the time this all is over.

Still Here

This is the propeller right
outside my window on
our first flight. Not cool. 

I apologize, I haven't written for a while. Things have been busy the last few weeks. I've been transitioning over to a new role at work, with that has come some travel. We also took a family vacation last week. I feel like I've been in airports more in the last month than I had the 5 years prior. All this stuff going on with planes falling apart and air traffic controllers falling asleep made the whole experience a little more concerning that what it probably needed to be. I don't know if they were being extra cautious, but there were several flights we heard delayed because of mechanical issues. Those sort of things don't inspire confidence.  Another thing that didn't inspire confidence... seeing that our first plane had propellers on the wings.  I didn't think they used these anymore. They must have brought it out of retirement to save some money. It was old, and I was scared. The flight was slow, loud, and vibrate-y. I was so glad when that one was over.

The Masters - 2011 Edition

Anybody who is a fan of the game of golf got a treat today. The final round of this year's Masters was pretty awesome. That might be hard to understand for somebody who doesn't like golf, but it was amazing. To have that many people in the running on the last day is one thing. To have that many in the running over the last few holes is just crazy. To have a 21 year old start the day with a 4 stroke lead then have Tiger come charging up on him, and then McIlroy blows it anyway. It was just a lot of fun to watch.

Worst game ever

I've been filling out NCAA brackets since 1992. I've never once correctly picked the champion on my pre-tourney bracket. That all changed this year. For some reason I picked UConn to win it all. I cannot totally justify my choice. I just felt they were really hot at the end of the year, and had a great chance to take it all.

Almost every year that I've filled out a bracket I've also entered some pool for 5 or 10 bucks.  I've never won. This year I would have won. The one year I pick the winner I didn't put any money on it.  Bummer. It's not like I had such an awesome bracket... I had UConn beating Florida in the final game. I did finish in the 99th percentile of all brackets on yahoo. That is pretty good.  And I get nothing for it. Such a shame.

Vegas Weekend

Today I got back from an awesome weekend in Las Vegas. Just last Monday I joined my new group at work, and by Thursday I was headed to Vegas. I got invited to attend the annual ops meeting, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was great to meet all the people I will be working with from across the country. I'm really looking forward to it. It was the first time I've ever been to something like that. It was a great experience.