Yes, we made it

In case you were wondering, we did finally make it back home. On our way over to Vermont Josh made some comment about how we have never had a flight without drama.

As we were leaving Vermont people we saying, "Good thing you are not leaving tomorrow! We are supposed to get a storm." Well, guess what? That storm was already heading for Chicago!

While at the airport in Burlington we noticed that one direct flight to Chicago was already cancelled. We had no idea there was even going to be any severe weather at this time. Josh thought it could have been a security issue.

When we arrived in Vermont we noticed another flight to Chicago (United, who of course make tonnes of flights to Chicago) was cancelled. Our layover was short so we popped over to a greasy spoon to stuff our faces with some cheese fries. That wee bag of pretzles on the plane just didn't cut it.

We rushed back over to our gate and saw that we were now departing 2 hours later. They said we would be boarding at 6:30, but not taking off until 7:45. Something about statistics for delayed flights.

Forty miles outside of Chicago the pilot informs us that there is a backlog of planes waiting to land and that we will have to circle Chicago for an hour and a half. Fortunately it only ended up being half that. It didn't do much good though as we were not able to get to our gate for another 30 minutes. They wanted us out of the way for the de-icing of the plane in the next gate. As we were taxi-ing around we saw plane after plane after plane just sitting there waiting to take off.

After such an exhausting weekend we arrived home at 12:30am, three and a half hours later than planned. And we got to get up at 6 the next morning to go to work.

A weekend trip

We were in Vermont this morning.

We're now in Philly.

At the airport.

I guess there's bad weather in Chicago...

I love Calphalon!

We are not extravagant people, but we do appreciate quality. We will pay a bit more for something that we feel will last us a long time. That is why when we were picking things our for our wedding registry we went with Calphalon. We chose to get the hard anodized set because we also wanted to be able to use stainless steel utensils. My grandparents were so kind to buy us the set and over the years we have found other Calphalon bits and bobs discounted at Marshalls or TJ Maxx. This is the only cookware set I have (partly because Josh is so persnickety about having everything match, despite his lack of presence in the kitchen).

Little did I know that making pretzles last night would void my warrenty. Once the dough is shaped is has to be sort of parboiled in baking soda water. When I was done and cleaned out my skillet I noticed discolouration in the pan (deanodizing). I knew that boiling vinegar would void the warrenty, but I didn't hear about this one. I looked online to see. There was something about cleaning with baking soda, but not cooking with it.

So I phoned up customer relations. She said yes, this would void my warrenty, but she would send me out a prepaid label and they would replace it as a courtesy. That's even better that if I just sent it in on my own and I would have to pay the postage for that monster.

We did have to send in 2 other pots almost 3 years ago because of deanodizing. They replaced them with a newer line that is similar, so I am wondering if they were having too many problems with this line and discontinued it for the new one. Hey, I don't care if they have to iron out the kinks. I can be assured that I will have these pots and pans for the rest of my life! ...or as long as Calphalon is around. :)

To be fair...

I explained to Josh this morning about the email he recieved yesterday with the church wanting him to fill out this survey that costs $125. (Josh had to work 19 hours yesterday. He got home at 3am and had to get back up at 6:30 to go back to work.) He told me that it might be a service provided for pastors and churches. Sort of like a dating service where they match you up based on your common interests and stuff. I guess that explains it a bit. But I am still put off by the idea of a church requiring this of any of their candidates. I suppose it would work out if you are looking for a large church that will be paying a higher salary. Ah, well...

Of all appalling things

I have seen some goofy things in this whole process of applying for a ministry position at churches, but just today as I was reading a response from one church to Josh this was the most appalling. They want the candidate to first fill out a survey along with sending in their resume. Oh, and the candidate will be charged $125 to access this survey.

still in a fog

...literally and mentally.

We've had a lot of fog the last couple of days. Reminds me a lot of Scotland. A couple of days ago it was REALLY bad. That was more like the haar we got in Edinburgh. It made me nostaligic. The nostalgia wore off when I had to drive in it. It was very scarry, especially on these country roads where the fog sweeps through the fields and engulfs you as you drive by.

I want to give you an update on our jobs situation. We both now have jobs. Yay! I am working as a teller at Chase bank. It is just part time, but I think I will enjoy it. Josh got a job through a temp agency working with a company that does clean-up after a fire or flood. They also do carpet cleaning, which is mostly what Josh is doing. Unfortunately his schedule is unpredictable. One day when he was about to get off work they all got called out to a big flood job. He had to work a double, until midnight then back to work at 8am.

I also set up a new blog today. Yes, I know. I can't even keep up with the two I've got now. Actually I am hoping my friend will take over the new one in due time. Many of you know that I have been raising money for a friend the last few years. We are paying for his little girl to get a better education in the Philippines. Take a look at it, though there is not much there just now. Hopefully I will get more info on there soon.

Sorry about the lack of communication (my emailing had been pretty bad, too). I have been in an anti-computer funk lately. I love to hear from you, but I just can't be bothered to do much surfing or typing. Part of it probably has to do with this GLOOMY winter we have been having. And of course before that it was the rough living situation we were going through. There's always an excuse I guess. Maybe I will have to rethink this blogging thing...