OK this is a big long rant – but since I had the platform to say how feel about American Airlines I thought I would use it. (Most regular readers can probably skip it – if anyone with a connection to American Airlines happens to see it, you can know that I will happily pay more to avoid your airlines and I’m very sad that I have two more overseas journeys scheduled with you.)
I left Cabinteely at 6 am on Sunday to go home. When I got to the airport I waited in line for 2 hours because the plane had been delayed for 5 hours. It sure seems as if they could have emailed or texted that info out to people. It sounded as if the plane hadn’t left Chicago so they knew it wasn’t going to arrive in time. (We heard multiple excuses for the delay – starting with maintenance, which is something I hate to hear. If there’s a problem with the plane – please use a more trusted plane!)
Because the flight was delayed I missed my connecting flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. They could find me a flight to St Louis – but I had to point out that wasn’t very helpful since I was going to the other Saint city. I did get an 8 euro credit at the restaurant. A breakfast is 9 euros – it’s that kind of attention to detail that really puts American Airlines on the map. Luckily for me I had plenty of euros and dollars – but the plane was 90 percent Americans. I suspect many of them left the last of their euros at the pub the night before! What I didn’t have was an adapter. I had calculated that with 7 hours on my laptop battery that I should be OK to leave the adapter behind for the kids (with my Irish cell phone). So I had a computer for half of the day.
Also American Airlines flies small planes overseas. They are turbulent and no private computers/TVs in the backs of the seats ahead of you. For folks who don’t travel overseas often this may sound petty – but it makes a long journey to try to watch a tiny TV from the window seat 8 rows back.
So you’re probably think getting from Chicago to Minneapolis would be pretty easy. That’s what I figured. What are there – 40 flights a day?! Nope. They could get me nothing. I am still in Chicago. (I left Cabinteely 27 hours ago.) I have a flight at 11 am. That’s 7 hours from now.
But the worst of it is how absolutely rude the American Airlines staff were. The folks in Dublin were just unhelpful and unapologetic. The flight attendants were fine – but I had a little room for them since I assume they were on overtime. (Of course they were being paid to be on the plane while the rest of us paid top dollar for the pleasure – but still I only saw one rude comment from a flight attendant. So that’s not too bad.)
The clincher really is that they made me line up *again* to get a standby ticket from Chicago – but they wouldn’t put me on standby. They would only book a ticket for the next day. So I have to line up in Dublin and Chicago for the same thing?! And the guy at the counter could not have been meaner. In fairness, I know I got the meanest guy. One of his coworkers moved the barrier ropes – and he started yelling at those of us in line for doing it! (Whacko!) Then when she admitted to doing it – no apology to us. He started by yelling at me for being in the airport on the wrong day. Remember – I’ve just arrived from Dublin. I pointed out that he was looking at my return info. (No apology.) Then he snaps at me because I have no ticket. The Dublin folks said to get one in Chicago. Finally he realizes that my problem was that the plane was delayed – I have not done anything. But still no apology, and no helpfulness. So then I kind of lost it, which always helps but I hate to fly and now I have to do it all over again in 7 hours.
Do you think American Airlines looks for the mean people or trains them for the wining American Airlines spirit?
Luckily Katie was able to get me and I am staying at her house. So it was a fun bonus to see the Lynchs – but I had 3 meetings scheduled tomorrow morning which I may or may not be able to reschedule. (That’s’ assuming I am able to get to home tomorrow.)
Filed under: St Paul
Christmas seemed even more hectic than usual in many ways. The storm of the century was predicted days before Christmas, which actually closed a number of places and caused the Chicago to leave a day early. Turned out, we did get a foot of snow between December 23 and Christmas. It was pretty! Some of our regularly planned activities did go on as usual…
Big Christmas Party
We had our annual Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas. Patrick’s stew was a big hit. We had a bunch of new people come – like some high school friends of mine who I were delighted to see. The nicest thing was that we had the basement set up for kids so the house felt a lot less crowded – and a ton quieter.
Cinderella at the Children’s Theatre
We saw our annual show at the Children’s Theatre with all of the Treacy’s. This year it was a Cinderella pantomime. It was very funny. Most of us loved the step-sisters, Pearl and Dorkus. Aine and Bridie loved Cinderella.
Presents
Another big highlight was opening presents! It was definitely an electronic year for us. Partially that’s what everyone wanted; partially that’s usually easy to pack for a 6-month stint in Ireland.
Filed under: St Paul
So I work with a fun company (Learning ZoneXPress) that does nutritional curriculum, games, posters and stuff for schools. They have a great series of foodscape cards, posters, stuffed animals… Foodscapes are animals and other things created from fruit and vegetables.
Anyways, LZE has started to post ingredients for Foodscapes! So we took on the challenge and create our own cauliflower and broccoli sheep. Ours do not look as good as the originals – but I have to say that Aine ate the rest of the broccoli over the next two days so maybe we’re going to start making more foodscapes.
Here are our creations!
Filed under: Minneapolis
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to see El Vez with Billy and Anita. This year I signed us up to get a picture with El Vez before the show. So we’re kind of like the famous people. Before the show we had a yummy dinner at Solera. And we got a sneak peek at life in Sex in the City watching the other people at the bar. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones drinking beer and certainly ate more than anyone else at the bar.
Back to El Vez – the show was really different this year. To start he played with Los Straightjackets – not after. It was a great mix. I tried to take some video during the slow songs; I danced during the fast songs. The Elvettes were new. Billy was pretty quick to pick up on that one. He had to move during the last few songs to be nearer her favorite Elvette – Lisa Maria.
There were lots of great costume changes. I was super sad that there wasn’t a secret set after the holiday show – but it was a great show. What was fun about the after show was that there was an ages disco. There was some really awkward dancing; one guy brought his own hula hoop; and there was one good break dancer.
And here are some more videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_sKYlGUFZI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE8widG4c9w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBOTeKAtvY4
Filed under: St Paul
The girls were worried that we wouldn’t see any snow before we left for Ireland. That would not have made me sad – but in the end we did get snow. All told we’ll have almost a month of snow before we go back to Dublin.
The girls built a kind of fort in the front yard. And we spent a good day sledding in Grandma’s backyard. Unfortunately, Lily had a little run in with a bush. We’re hoping it won’t leave any scars.
Filed under: St Paul
Lily has been taking trombone for two years now. I voted for the flute – or anything else that’s easier to carry but Lily wanted the trombone. She has been great about practicing and I was really proud of how well she’s been playing. Actually the whole band concert was very good.
The video is a little shaky – I hired a videographer who would be able to sneak into the front row – but the sound is good.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whtOWjUHxD0]
Filed under: St Paul
On December 5 we took a tiny trip to the Grand Meander – specifically we went to see the penguin. I love that Grand Ave has events like that – and it’s so close we can walk.
Filed under: Chicago
This year we spent Thanksgiving in Chicago. We drove as far as the Dells on Wednesday. Stayed in a hotel and left the next morning for Chicago. We convoyed with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Billy. Actually Aine drove in that car and the rest of us in our car.
Thanksgiving Dinner
We got to the Lynches just in time for dinner. I think Katie had 25 people over for dinner. They made 3 turkeys; one was grilled, one deep fried and one was cooked the usual way. There was stuffing, pumpkin pies and a lot of other secondary foods. (Well secondary in my opinion.) Everything was great. The kids had a fun time with their cousins.
Friday Pedicure
Instead of going shopping on Black Friday, Katie, Mom and I went and got pedicures. That’s a trend that I think we should continue.
Horse Drawn Carriage
Friday night all 13 of us toured downtown Chicago on horse drawn carriages. Kate got us great Groupon bargains. It wasn’t too cold – and we got a fun trip around Michigan Avenue towards Navy Pier. I don’t think we had ever done a tour like that – it was fun. On the way to the carriage we stopped in the largest ER hospital in Chicago. We just had to use the bathroom and warm up – but it felt a little bit like ER – without Dr Carter.
After the carriage rides we went to Greek Town for dinner. Greek Town is always fun! Our group of 13 was hardly the biggest group there – we weren’t even the loudest. Our favorite part is when the set the Saganaki on fire.
Saturday Café Too
Saturday we went swimming at Grandma & Grandpa’s hotel. That was fun. Then we went to the Lynches chirch to make Advent Calendars. But the very fun activity of the day was trying out a new (for us) restaurant in Chicago called Café Too. It’s a small restaurant. They hire homeless and low income workers to learn the restaurant business. You can get a 6-course meal for $24; bet yet, they don’t have a liquor license so you can bring in your own wine.
The food was very good and the service was even better. They should open a restaurant in St Paul.
Sunday we drove home. There was a lot of fun hanging out, walking around Katie’s neighborhood and stuff over the weekend too.
Filed under: St Paul
We were kind of the rerun family this month; we also went to the History Center twice this month. We hadn’t been there is years. Aine was still in God’s pocket last time we were there. But I have to say, the History Center was fun – a ton cooler than I remembered or maybe the kids are just at better ages to enjoy it now. (In other words, maybe we’re cooler now.) I’ll just tell you about our favorite parts…
The tornado room
There’s an exhibit on weather – big shock for Minnesota. But there’s a cool reenactment of the 1965 tornado in Fridley. None of us were around for the 1965 tornado, but we’re all experienced tornado watches so we knew a little bit. But this exhibit gives you a much better sense of having been there. It’s in a space that looks like a basement. You turn on the radio and you start to hear the radio report from the day of the tornado,. You can see the sky changing color out the basement window. You here that it’s coming. The hear and see the hail and then the yellowish quiet before you hear the loud noise like a train going overhead – then you see a tree fall down out the window. It’s pretty scary – in a good way.
Fighter Plane
The next exhibit is cool in a sad way. You climb into an old fighter plane as if you’re a new recruit on the way to Normandy or someplace like that. The exhibit doesn’t have a super high tech feel but you do get the sense that you’re taking off and flying through a little vibrating, the noise and the change in the clouds out the window. They talk through the history of the time by talking to you as If you were a soldier. Talking about how so many of the soldier would have been sick on the plane – too many to all reach the sick bucket. They give some context for why you’re going over in the plane – and then you’re hit and the plane starts to spiral down. Only 3 make it out alive. As I said – it’s sad. Even poor Aine left saying – so we died then, huh? But I feel like if you’re country is in a war that maybe you ought to get what that means no matter how old you are.
It’s part of the Greatest Generation exhibit. We were with Grandma, but she isn’t from the Greater Generation but the others who were there at the same time were a little older. It was kind of interesting to be there with folks who might have remembered some of it. Grandma did remember other parts of the exhibit – in fact I remembered some of the plates and other items because my Grandma Murphy would have had all of it still when I was a kid.
The House
Finally there’s a house replica and the historians have tracked the owners of the home since it was built. It’s from the East Side, which is an areas that we don’t really know – but it’s fun to walk through the rooms and learn about the inhabitants. You see how it went from what seemed like a pretty fancy place to becoming a duplex and what that meant for the new inhabitants. You get a sense as you read the info from the families that the neighborhood was super friendly at one point but that it became less so – maybe because everywhere just became less friendly, maybe as new immigrants moved in from new areas, maybe as the house got older and older and probably fell into needing more repairs.
They have a class at the History Center where you can research the history of your own house. Maybe I’ll do that with the kids when we get back this summer.
Filed under: Minneapolis
We’ve had two fun visits to The Walker in November. First we went to the Dan Graham show on the first Saturday, which is always a good kid’s day. Sadly we missed the Suicide Commandoes because I went to a conference with the Twin City Media Alliance. The conference was good – but the Suicide Commandoes would have been good too.
Back to what we did do – Dan Graham is very modern art. He uses plastics, perspectives and a video from Minor Threat circa 1983; sadly not filmed in the Twin Cities, but still fun to watch. Actually one work I really liked was installed in a small room; on one walk you could see a video of someone rolling down the hill holding a video camera; on the other wall you could see what was being videotaped.
Despite the fact that it was November in Minnesota, it was also a great day to visit the sculpture garden. So we walked around there too.
A couple of weeks later, Patrick and I went back for the After Hours show – where they gave a sneak preview of the benches and binoculars exhibit. Even Patrick liked the new exhibit, which was really lots of classic Walker pieces all posted in one very tall room. It included the Chuck Close face, which I think is the most classically Walker piece ever. Except of course for the talking dolphin, which they are taking down. That’s the family favorite exhibit. In fact I’ve started a “Dave the Dolphin” Facebook group you can join if you too love the Dolphin. I read where they were talking it down mid-December – but someone at the museum said February.
Anyways the After Hours was a lot of fun – great people watching. We saw a fun band. I tried a new cocktail, which really reminded me that I’m a beer girl.
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