Silence....

by Justin

We have been fielding a lot of questions about the silence on the blog about our pregnancy. Rest assured we are very excited to welcome our son into the world. However, we are being sensitive to the fact that we have several couple friends who desire families of their own and for various reasons are not currently pregnant. Holly and I were there. We completely understand and remember the difficulty and tears shed as people around us received the joy and blessing we were longing for. We know the heartache it took to read other’s blogs and emails. We have decided to keep our pregnancy to those who ask and those we are around. We would be elated to share pictures, stories and even tears, if need be. Rest assured that once our bouncing baby boy is on this side of the womb, stories and pictures will abound.

For an update, we are doing great. Holly feels good and is progressing normally. We are enjoying watching and feeling him move. We have officially registered at Target and have set the dates of the showers. Now we are tackling the nursery. It is going to be train themed. I loved trains growing up, so it is a natural fit for me! I am building a shelf around the top of the room for a track, and we are buying little train knickknacks for all corners!

That’s the update. Email for more info, if you wish!

My Brother's Wedding

Well as promised here are some wedding pictures.

First off our unexpected overnight in Charlotte. Thanks Clint and Erin!
The Bride and Groom (Shawn and Dana)

The Wedding PartyShawn and I messing around in the ocean. Absolutely NO comments about my whiteness are needed. For the record, I didn't come back sunburned either....
Here is Holly's Island Hair!
Our last night on the Island
Misc Pictures:

The Highlight of My Commute

You will have to wait till Justin gets home from San Francisco for wedding pictures, because he took our camera with him. In the meantime...

I saw the funniest thing in traffic today, and I thought it would be perfect to share with you since we waste so much time here complaining about traffic. I'm driving along on my way home and I come up beside a reallllllly old car. I don't know anything about cars, but its old, its a little boat-like and I think it used to be green. Or some version of it perhaps. The windows were down, and I was surprised to see a well-dressed man in a long sleeve button up shirt with a tie, clean shaven and quite respectable looking. Hmm.... you never know. Then I look beyond him to the sign he has posted on the rear driver's side window.

It states:

* No air conditioning
* No cruise control
* No car payment since the Nixon administration

Now, that is funny! I chuckled about it all the way home, and actually laughed out loud when I was a couple of streets from my exit and saw him again. It really was priceless. Good for him for not getting drawn into the materialism of our world. I hope he's doing something great with his paycheck!

By the numbers

Well he did it. I didn’t think I would see the day, but my brother actually got married. We spent a few extra days and flew down to Sint Maarten to attend the ceremony. We just missed the hurricane and thankfully it swung south altogether. So here are a few numbers to get us started.

7: The number of airports we were at over our trip to Sint Maarten.
Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW)
Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)
Princess Juliana International (Sint Maarten) (SXM)
Miami International (MIA)
Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International (FLL)
William P. Hobby Airport (Houston) (HOU)
Dallas Love Field (DAL)

5: The total number of days for our trip
4: The total number of hotels we stayed at during the trip
3: The total number of different airlines it took to get there and back.
2: The number of bags American Airlines lost.

Or in short: Five days, Four hotels and three airlines.

What happen you ask? Well hold on…

Thursday night Mom, Dad, Holly and I are staying in a hotel by DFW. Our flight is at 7:15 Friday morning and we are flying standby, so you have to be early. Thursday night also happens to be the night the Tropical Storm Erin dumps a lot of rain on the metroplex. This causes Thursday night flight to be very delayed. Friday morning we check in and learn that due to late arrivals, the crews are on mandatory rest and cannot fly before 9:30. The airline is rebooking paying customers to the next flight, so there is no way we are getting out earlier than that.

So we finally get off the ground and head to CLT on US Airways. As expected we misconnect for our flight to SXM. We quickly make plans, rent a car and get a hotel for the evening. We do get a great break and our great friends (the ones who never comment on this blog) had an open evening and invited us over for some good home cooking. It was yummy, but the company and welcome nature of our friends is what made the evening. The next morning we get up and head to the airport for our flight to SXM.

We load on the plane and sit there. An hour later we finally move. It seems the jet bridge was stuck up against the plane without power. We arrive late to SXM and just a hour and a half before the wedding. So very tired and travel worn we check into our third hotel.

The wedding is nice. It is actually the uneventful part of the story. A separate post with pictures will follow.

We are planning to take US Airways home on Monday. I wake up and check the flight to find that it is sold out, time for our backup plan. We immediately pack and head to the airport to get on American Airlines. After a lot of confusion of whether or not there were seats on the plane we are on our way to MIA. We land in MIA with a four hour layover. We go to the gate to see our place on the standby list is 27 thru 30^th. NOT GOOD if you are dead last on the plane. We get a very helpful AA flight attendant, but some very rude AA employees otherwise. She informs us that she will barely get on the plane, we have no chance. Sure enough we were four of the six people not making it on. So we decide that we are not going to chance it with American Airlines anymore. We hop in a cab, after finding a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We check into our fourth hotel.

The next morning we head to FLL and get on good ole Southwest Airlines. There noting quite as comforting as home. SWA treats us good, understands our predicament and is nice to us. What a concept. We change planes in HOU marking our sixth airport, landing safe and sound at DAL.

We rent a car and head to DFW to retrieve our luggage that went on American Airlines the previous night. After a lot or running around we learn that one of my parents bags is lost at DFW and the other bad went to Buenos Aires. Now that is a trip!

Needless to say we are tired. But our standby travel saved us over $800. Well sort of, now we have to deduct hotels and rent cars! However, even if we had a ticket we would have misconnected on our outbound. We had a good time and look forward to a longer trip sometime in the future, albeit not on American Airlines.

P.S. I wrote this fast and furious late in the evening. Sorry for bad grammar and no reading checks! Justin

May we introduce...

Well after much anticipation and even a few tears, we are proud to announce our baby is a BOY! To avoid child porn issues, I will spare you the pictures that prove this point. Take our word for it, there was no IF or even well lets see. The sonographer went to "take a peek" and there was no "peek" to it. Clear as day! We are excited.

We are headed to St. Maarten on Friday. Pray for Hurricane Dean to stay south and west!

Justin, Holly and our Son!

Our Crazy Life

by Holly

We are finally finished with the actual wood floor itself, but still lack transitions, so you have to be careful around the edges and in doorways. We actually went back to the flooring store with our measurements to order them, and found out that the manufacturer doesn't stain the type of transition we need with the color of stain we need. Why not? I do not know. We were advised to go to Home Depot or Lowe's, buy our own trim and stain it ourselves, and save some money as well. We'll see when we find the time to do all of that...

Which brings me to the fact that we are leaving on Friday morning at 7am for St. Maarten and will return late Monday evening. I'm going to make the most of it, although I'm not too excited about the trip and all of its family spider web-o'-drama. I'll leave it at that. On a positive note, it should be a nice, romantic getaway with my hubbie before our little one arrives on the scene in a few months. And it is supposed to be in the 80's with thunderstorms, so that beats this 105 degree heat all to pieces!

And if you ask Justin, he will roll his eyes and exaggerate at the list of other things we need to accomplish at home. I don't know if its true nesting or not, but I am motivated to clean, clean out, and organize! We have a few things for the nursery already, but can't put it together till we get the scrapbook and sewing stuff out of there, and we can't put that in the non-dining room until we get the dining furniture back to his aunt and uncle. What a maddening circle of projects!

We'll get there. I'm just ready for a break, to put my feet up and not think about the chores still waiting for me. Maybe I need a visit from my mom to help me cross off some things. Mom, where are you??

Mid-Week Questions

by Justin

Why do people finish getting ready for work in the car? It seems this week, while traveling to work, I have run across several people who are putting on makeup, shaving, plucking eyebrows, ect. Thankfully no one was putting in contacts, but I think that is next. Is it really too much to ask for someone to be five minutes late to work of get up ten minutes earlier to finish your face to get ready for the day? Is there really so much downtime on the commute that you need to fill it with “productive activities”, as my coworker explained? This is the same coworker who’s commute to work is all of twelve minutes, if she hits the lights. I think this bothers me more than I realize.

It is August 9^th in Dallas and we haven’t had a 100 degree day. This week has been very hot and humid, as the rest of the country has been for weeks. We are actually predicted to hit 100 this weekend. All I heard yesterday from people was how freakin’ hot it was. Are you kidding me? We went the entire month of July without a 100 degree day. I barbequed every week in July and didn’t burn my pasty white forehead even once. It is like complaining that it rained for two months after two YEARS of drought. Perspective people, it is all I ask.

Thanks for allowing me my mid-week vent.

We concluded our Summer Barbeque Series last night. I think they were a rousing hit. Last night was a potluck meal. We provided a salad and some drinks. It was so nice not to have to grill outside and worry about all the details. We played a couple rounds of Pond Scum (a wonderful group game I might add, with such a pleasant name). We communed with one another, which was the ultimate point. In the end, over the course of the summer we merged different generations (from retired to newborns), different groups (church to friends) and different personalities to create quite an great mix. I really enjoyed them and look forward to doing it again in the future. Albeit maybe not four in a row ;)

Make it a great week!

Summer Fun

We have been hosting a summer BBQ series at our house each Wednesday night. Our first shindig, “Flip-Flop Pary”, was marked by good burgers and great company. Last week we our “Dog Days of Summer” hotdog party was busting the roof off the house. This week we welcome our in-town friends to a “Tiki Party”, complete with grilled chicken breasts and fixins. We are excited to merge our diverse set of friends into one place and let the good times roll. They are very informal, which is our style, and full of food and conversation. We will round out the summer series next week with a pot-luck style spread. Wish you were here!

Over the weekend Holly and I scooted off to San Angelo to attend one of Holly’s BFFs from High School wedding. As we sat through some Friday afternoon traffic, Holly and I realized that the six hour drive was the longest we had been in a car since we drove to the Texas panhandle for Christmas. Does anyone else think we are spoiled to free open airline seats?

We are also barreling towards some major milestones. On August 15 we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We are pretty excited about that, but still nervous. We’ll keep you up to date. On August 18^th my brother gets married in St. Maarten. I have never been to the Caribbean, Bahamas or anything like it, so I am excited.

Finally we need to welcome Jackson David Kolb to this side of the world. The bouncing baby boy of Seth and Kristen Kolb was born on Monday. We are super excited for the first time parents and anxious await meeting him someday soon, even if by webcam! For super cute new baby pictures follow the ‘Seth’s Blog’ link on the sidebar.

Make it a great week!

Warning

Not completing a blog post within a current 12 month period will get your link removed from this bloggers roll. Come on folk, that isn't asking too much, is it?

The Cat Won

Well it stopped raining. I, for one, never complained. This might go down as the greatest summer ever in my book. It is July 17^th in Dallas and we haven’t had a 100 degree day yet. Yesterday was the first ‘Ozone’ day since who knows when. It has been great.

Well the cat won. As you know our cat, Trigger, has diabetes. We don’t know why but after five or so years he peed on the carpet for the first time ever. From day one, he has always used a litter box. We don’t know if he just couldn’t make it to the box this one time, or what. Since his pee was already there we battled him over the next three weeks of using the same area of carpet multiple times as his restroom. We tried our normal discipline routine. We tried new forms of discipline. We even took him to the vet to check for a urinary tract infection. No dice. So after three weeks of battle, Trigger won.

What did he win, you might be wondering? Well he won a new wood floor. I have a low tolerance for cat pee smell, but Holly is even worse. Last week we pulled up the carpet in our living room, hall and yanked the linoleum in the laundry room. Over the weekend and after work this week we have been laying our new oak wood floor.

Now I helped Dad lay his laminate floor some time back. I figured my extensive knowledge and practice would pay off. I also knew I could call on Dad to return the favor and help. Sure enough Dad and I laid the hardest part, full of notches and un-straight walls, over the weekend. Mom was a trooper and pulled all the grass and weeds from our flower beds! Holly and I have been working to finish the remaining area by Wednesday.

Why Wednesday you ask? Well Holly and I have initiated a summer barbeque series at our home. Our first one is a ‘Flip Flop Party’ to be held this Wednesday. I really thought we could finish the flooring over the weekend. I didn’t count on the extensive notching needed to get into the laundry room. My expertise failed me there.

So here we are. Trigger likes the new floor. My knees and back hurt. Holly is a handy flooring assistant.

Happy Fourth of July

Holly and I are headed to Phoenix in the morning to celebrate my dad's graduation on the 6th. I will blog more about that when we return, but here is my thought for the holiday:

"How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy." - Paul Sweeney, author

Plus you can't have a fourth without:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

~ Declaration of Independence
~ July 4th, 1776

Entitlement

Holly has been confronted with a series of events lately that all boil down to people thinking they are entitled to certain items. After she brought this up I also have been noticing a lot of entitlement mentalities as well. Since we haven’t posted in a while I thought I would post a few that I have seen and see if any of the far off bloggers have any other real life examples.

1. I am driving down the highway at 70 mph and you decide that you want in my lane. You simply turn on your blinker and think that you signaling your desire entitles you to the lane. However, I am driving faster than you. You don’t care you speed up to get in front of me then slow to your original speed, because you desire to be in that lane, not that you need to be in MY lane. (yes I realize this is reverse entitlement)

2. A co-worker has studied and passed a certification exam that myself and two other people have. He feels that because he is older he is entitled to get a promotion. However, he has less years of experience than I do and people don’t want to work with him because he is adamant that he is good at his job. No one likes to pick up after his messes. He has been told these things by management, but feels they are just being ‘picky’ and he still DESERVES the promotion because of his certification.

3. Another co-worker is very upset because she can’t fly to see her friend this weekend in Florida because all the planes are full. She feels that the company should block some seats for employees to fly on. She obviously feels that she is entitled to a free flight as apart of her benefits. She obviously hasn’t figured out that full seats means someone paid for that seat and conversely paid her salary, whether she is in Florida or not.

Many people feel they are entitled to a lot of things. I could go off for hours, but I am wondering if any of you have any good entitlement situations…

We're Pregnant!

If we haven’t been able to tell you in person, please forgive us. We have waited until we just can’t wait anymore. Our due date is 12/31/07, a New Year’s blessing for sure! You can expect more updates soon!

What happened here?!

by Holly

I came into work on Wednesday morning to find my desk all in upheaval. There was potting soil from my plant all over the shelf, the water bottle that has a plant in it was out of water, the Kleenex box was empty and everything else on my desk was out of place. Hmm…. what could have happened here? And why?

Upon further inspection, I realize there is a horrible screeching noise coming from under my desk, and the general power strip area. The computer will not come on at all.

So, I cleaned up the potting soil and water mess, and put everything back in its place. I then sat down (and realized my chair was wet) to call the help desk for some help with the offending noise and the fact that my computer will not come on. My phone doesn’t work. Oh, there is a dial tone, but when you push the buttons, all that happens is a suspicious ‘squish’. That’s right. My phone is wet.

After notifying my supervisor of what’s happened so far, I went to the secretary’s desk to use her phone. After a few questions such as “And you say the phone is wet?” and “What did you say the noise sounded like?” I was able to get someone to come check it out.

Turns out that the power strip had gotten wet as well, so after replacing it, I was good to go and the computer works fine. And no more screeching noise!

The phone? That took a couple more hours and a very nice old man to tell me that my phone was in fact, broken. That was his technical diagnosis for the problem. I got a new one, and he even showed me how to program numbers into it.

Everything is fine now, but my questions remain: What happened here? And why? And one more: Who? I assume I’ll never get my answers b/c people are just that immature. That is today’s society. Do whatever you want and don’t mind the consequences. Someone else will clean up your mess.

So, I hope you had a better start to your Wednesday than I did! Happy Thursday!

P.S. I’m not in a bad mood. Just pensive, pondering the direction of our society, and if it has anything to do with the fact that parents are letting TV’s raise their children and others are insisting on removing God from our lives. Hold that thought- Who was it that created us? That’s right!

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

By Justin

A few weeks ago I returned home from a week on the road to find that Holly had bought me a surprise. It was tickets to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Myerson. I was super pumped. So following in those people from Chicago and their refined reviews, here is my take on the concert. Now some of you might think I know something musical. I played in the high school band, as did Holly, but our limit to musical theory is whether or not it sounds good. So what follows is the ‘Texan’ review of our evening.

The valet guy was super nice and not too expensive. We drove up in our Ford and he parked it right next to a Jaguar, so that was cool. We had never been and were obviously turned around and he pointed us in the right direction. We really like the valet guy.

The Myerson is beautiful. You can tell it was designed by a really small Asian guy (I.M. Pei for you architecture types). The aisles are long and the rows are narrow. He needed to account for Texas boots and American stomachs, but the seats were comfy.

We arrived in time to hear musicians warming up. That was fun. They sound good even when they are not all playing the same thing. Maybe that is a sign of talent.

The order of the evening was as follows:

Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Connesson: Une lueur dans l'âge sombre, "A Glimmer in an Age of Darkness"
Ravel: La Valse

The Piano Concerto was by far the hit of the evening. It was 33 minutes with great crescendos and movement. Parts were familiar which always increases the entertainment value for me. Holly and I even resisted the temptation to clap during the first and second movement, however I think that is because we read a beginners guide and knew not too.

The third piece was by a newer French composer (sorry couldn’t resist). What was nice was the conductor spoke after the intermission to explain how the piece was about a new star filling the vast darkness of space. He went on to explain melodies and movements within the piece. Holly and I hate interpreting art and music so it was great to hear what he was talking about and visualize what the composer envisioned in writing it.

The final piece was great. It was a really fast waltz, a very peppy and lively tune. I was really getting into it and bam it was done. I really wanted to hear it again.

I will also say that intermission was interesting as well. My critique is that they should put how long intermission is going to be on the playbill. Having never been I didn’t know how long I had to down my glass of champagne. I finally asked a really nice usher who explained that it is 20 minutes and that we will hear bells when it is time to return to our seats. Bells? Sure enough bells were piped in. Why bells? I always thought you just flashed the lights, with one minute till. Sure enough they did that as well! Good planning guys.

Our only critique of the concert itself was a certain French Horn musician. Having played the FH in high school I spent a lot of time listening for their parts. It was annoying me at times to see a FH slumped over his horn while he was not playing. I know the concerto has long piano solos, it is a PIANO concerto, but still no one else looked bored. He, on several occasions, put his elbow on the bell of the horn and propped his head on his palm. Nothing says can I go home more than that. It was very distracting to me. Holly noticed it as well. She also noticed another player of a fairly large “baritone like” instrument fold his hand over his horn.

So we like the symphony. My final critique is the Myerson is beautiful and has great valet, ushers and champagne! Was that B-flat suppose to be sharp?

FAM Team

By Justin

I am going to admit that I don’t know anything about the game called ‘Fam’. My guy friends play this game in which you say the word fam. There are rules and I just don’t know them. There is a history, I don’t understand. I honestly don’t know the first thing about it, except to say fam.

The word fam occurs a lot in my life. In fact, at work I have joined a FAM team. This team responds to any accidents involving planes. My role on the Family Notification Team, FAM for short, is to call the next of kin for passengers and notify them of an accident and gather some information. It is a high stress but very necessary part of disaster planning.

Yesterday we had a full scale drill. At 9:15am a Southwest plane hit an F-16 on landing in Tulsa, OK. In the drill we had 100 people on board the plane plus crew. I received my notification of activation at 9:45am. It was a nerve racking day. I made actual calls during the drill to actors playing family members. I was assigned to crew to start the day and my first call was to the wife of the pilot to notify her that her husband was injured and transported to a hospital. She was already onsite in Tulsa. I could hear over her cell phone the sirens and people in the background. As the day went on it became easier to pick up the phone and call to check on the family members.

It brought to life, somewhat, what a real activation will be like. At Southwest we don’t assume it won’t happen and we don’t act like it won’t. We talk and live like it is going to happen today and are prepared if it does. As they like to say in training, we are the safest airline in the world, flying the most flights per day. That is where you want to be, but we have to be prepared for the inevitable.

For future reference, if you ever hear of a Southwest incident, don’t call me call Holly. I'll already be on the phone.

Oh and

FAM (whatever that means)

And Now My Turn

by Holly

My hubbie has tagged me, so here we go…

1. I love my cat, Trigger, more than most people probably think you should love an animal. I like to kiss his head between his ears and scratch his armpits till his purr rattles the roof. I have to pick him up for a quick squeeze and kiss before I shower every night and he can jump in bed with us on weekend mornings if I’m changing the sheets that day (Justin’s more lax on this than I am!) And we’re learning to give him insulin injections for his diabetes since the supplements didn’t work, but its worth it for my baby!

2. I love anything orange scented and currently am loving the Bath and Body Works Mango-Mandarin shampoo and conditioner. Smells like an orange grove in our bathroom every night!

3. I have to go through the house each night and ‘pick up’ everything that’s not in its place. This is not the same as cleaning, but just to make things look neat and tidy. I’ve become a little more relaxed about it since marrying Justin, but he’s also had to learn that this is important to me and I’m not going to stop doing it.

4. I miss my family terribly and wish that I could go home to see them more often. This is complicated only by the fact that we have so many friends here in the Dallas area and are so involved in our church that we don’t have all that many free weekends. A nice problem to have though!

5. I don’t know what I would do without peanut butter or peanut butter flavored fudge or peanut butter cups or peanut butter ice cream….

6. My favorite place to eat is IHOP, any time of day, any day of the week. And any given night, if I can’t sleep, I try to persuade Justin to get up and go have pancakes with me. This has only worked on weekend-nights typically, as we get up at 5:30 to get ready for work each day and need our sleep!

7. My hero(ine) is my grandma, who I call Mom. She is a prayer warrior and has devoted her life to serving God and her family. She has had some difficult times in her life and has always chosen to be the source of strength for our family, trusting in God to carry us through. She will have many crowns in heaven, for her service to others and her selfless acts of kindness that come so naturally to her. I love you Mom!


I'm not going to tag anyone, b/c we have the same blog-world friends for the most part, but if Abbey and Charissa want to do it, I'd love to read yours! Aimee has done it already if you want to check out her list.

Tagged

Here are the rules: each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well . At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!
Where to start??

1. I am a fanatical Texan. The guest bathroom in our house is complete with everything Lone Star State. For my one year anniversary with Southwest I received a stained glass wall hanging that is full of Texas artifacts. The bathroom is rounded out with a state flag shower curtain. Even my pickup is Lone Star red!

2. I hate painting. Holly loves to spice up the house with painting and accents. I do it out of husband obligation, but I really dislike it. I love the result just not all that blue tape and clean up.

3. I have a goal to see every one of my distant friends this year. I am off to a slow start, but I think I will still make it.

4. My driving routine to work is very regimented. I go the same way every morning and a different way every afternoon. I turn on the radio change stations and turn it off at very specific points. If an accident causes me to change my routine it is very disruptful to my day or evening.

5. If I wasn’t married and lived alone I would be like Hugh Grant’s roommate on Nottinghill. I consider myself pretty well kept, but I know it is all Holly’s doing.

6. I love the Chapel. I attend Plano Bible Chapel. It is significant to me that we don’t call ourselves a church. I love the fact our founders and elders value that difference. I love my Sunday school and especially the people who teach it. I love my pastor and his enthusiasm and passion for effecting change in peoples lives. I love just being in the company of the people of the church.

7. I know a secret about a blog-world friend, but I can’t tell. I am however open to bribes…

I tag Holly, Seth, Jonathan, Paul and Sarah. Sorry but everyone else is taken so I second the tags on Ethan, Armand and Jelanie!

Main Landing Gear Warning Light

It was a normal flight, for the most part. I was riding as a crew member from Fort Lauderdale on a packed plane to Houston and then on to Love Field. Our early arrival into Houston Hobby was well received by the passengers. I always like being early and I like to see the passengers happy when it is announced. As we landed we learned that we had an aircraft swap. There goes the time savings.

We went to our new gate to board our new plane and it was late. Every board showed delayed, so something crazy was going on somewhere. The crew and I board the plane, go through the pre-board checklist and start to re-board passengers. We takeoff with no problems. After we reach 10,000 feet I jump up and start to pass out peanuts. I get three rows of peanuts passed out when the captain calls the flight attendants. Normally this occurs when he is going to request the FAs sit down due to turbulence. I stop passing out peanuts and head to my seat, in anticipation. Right then the captain comes on the intercom and says that we have a ‘Main Gear Warning Light’ and that we are returning to Houston.

Now there are precious few things that you don’t want to go wrong on an aircraft. Almost every system on a passenger airplane in the US has two and three backup systems. This fact has made air travel in this country the safest in the world. The last thing you want to hear on an airplane is that the one system you need to land without incident has a warning light.

Thankfully all the readings in the cockpit showed that the gear was functioning properly and that the light was faulty, but those were some intense minutes. The other thing that was odd was that the flight crew knew that the system was operating as normal, but the passengers were not informed of anything other than a warning light. The FA stated that for the most part the less the passengers know the easier it is to handle any situations that arise. I found that very interesting.

Well we landed at Hobby without incident. We then transferred our passengers back to the original plane that we had left at the old gate and headed on our way to Love field. I was originally irked that we were taking off late. After our incident it made me ignore the fact that I was getting home 2.5 hours later than scheduled and glad to know that I work for an airline that values the safety of passengers so much that they don’t ignore warning lights just to get a flight on time or make money.

Imus in the Mornings

by Justin

I don’t know Imus. I have never even heard of him till last week. I am quite sure, based on what I am told, I wouldn’t enjoy listening to him. I do, however, have a problem with him being fired.

The problem I have is the discourse of racism in our country. Imus said “nappy headed hos” or something like that to cause him to get fired. No sooner than he said it did the NAACP, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were on a plane to protest.

My question is why isn’t the NAACP, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson protesting at the record company’s door step or the phat pharm corporate headquarters? Why are they not protesting the MTV awards show?

The answer is simple, they are not white.

I am sure I am racist in some form or fashion. I am sure that I have discriminatory beliefs and actions. I do however try not to be hypocritical. If they want me to respect the NAACP or even begin to listen and learn about a “new civil rights era” in this country, then it is time to clean their own house. Till then, stay our of mine.

It is time for a change is discourse in this debate. It isn’t white vs. black, cacasion vs. African American or even you vs. me. It is all of us trying to learn from each other. It is about us all holding each other to same standard. If you call your friend, brother or even your mother a ‘ho’ and it is an endearing term, then don’t be shocked when I call them the same thing.