Entries this day: Anal Doh Meeting toLosAngeles waitingInLA

Anal

1:24am CST Monday 12 February 2001

Wende is being quite careful and meticulous as she packs our toiletries for Australia. I would just toss soap and shampoo and towel into a bag. She's using her new label maker to label items with typeface perfect lettering. Very cute.

I think it's 6:24pm in Melbourne now. Still quite a few hours to stay awake if I intend to get on their schedule. I won't stay up for too much longer tonight; I imagine I'll be able to sleep plenty long enough on the 14 hour flight.

Doh

2:07am CST Monday 12 February 2001

Hmmm. It has suddenly come to our attention that we are not sure where our plane tickets are. Wende had them last when she got her passport, so I'm not too worried about us (her) not finding them. Wende is normally a genius at finding things, even if I'm the last one who had them.

2:10am

Don't worry. I found them on the stairs.

2:38am

I confirmed our departure airport by calling the 1-800 number and talking to a computer voice woman. Relatively good speech recognition software on their end, and exceptionally good pattern matching on finding correct flights. And it was quite user friendly.

I'm pretty much going to bed now. It's currently 7:40 pm tomorrow in Melbourne.

Meeting

12:30pm Monday 12 February 2001

I've been in work meetings all this morning, and I'm about to leave. But(!) I just remembered that I need to sync my Handspring Visor and move some entries online that I wrote last night!

12:42pm

Okay, I just put them all online, and I'm going to geo Go!

Bye, work! Have fun without me!

permalink

toLosAngeles

2:30 pm CST Monday 12 Feb 2001

This counts as my first entry that will be stored in my Visor until we get back! We have just dropped off my car at the car place to be fixed while we're gone. New brakes, power steering and new reverse lights.

We are essentially all packed, super duper thanks to Wende and her Container Store prowess.

5:10 pm

We are now at the airport gate. Super duper thanks to Jennifer for dropping us off! I'm excited and not nervous; Wende is nervous a little bit, and I'm not sure exactly why... it is a big trip, and everything is going perfectly.

Our flight is scheduled to leave at 5:55pm

5:38 pm

On the plane now. I just mailed some bills that we had outstanding. Water, cellphone, auto insurance, something else. Gave all my metal items to Wende so I could easily come back through the security gate after mailing them.

5:41 pm

Wende just went over our checklist. "let me see if we brought everything, now that we're on the plane."

6:23 pm (11:23am Tuesday in Melbourne)

I just wrote a note on the barf bag, after I got the great idea from someone on my most recent flight:

HI        12 February 2001
I'm Rob.  Nice to meet
you!  I hope you have
a super good flight with
plenty of tasty beverages and
smiling faces.

We are en route to
Los Angeles from Houston
and then to Melbourne Australia!

Read all about it (when
we get back 21 Feb) on 
my website  www.robnugen.com

bye!   - ROB

Wende points out the good point that a badguy could find the bag today and find out our address from my name and break in, knowing that we aren't going to be home.. Hmmm. Maybe I'll just put the bag on the plane while we are actually en route back to Houston.

6:29 pm

Wende just looked around a little bit and stated plainly with a smile: "I'm bored."

Oh well.

The plane we are on is a "Super 80." I think it's a DC 80. It's got 2 seats on the left side, the aisle and then 3 seats on the right side. In first class, 2 seats on each side.

I've decided I'm going to stay awake for 12 more hours, which will be 11:30pm Tuesday in Australia. Then I can sleep for 8 or so hours and wake up and watch the landing and stuff at 9:15am. (I know the math doesn't work exactly, but whatever.)

6:36 pm

This flight is quite empty. Only about 25% full of people, and only like 15 percent in first class.

6:38 pm

Dinner time. Chicken or pasta. I'm getting chicken.

7:00 pm (noon Tuesday in Melbourne)

Just ate dinner. 11 more hours to stay awake. Yummy chocolate brownie and crispy cold lettuce (but lots of white and not much green) and chicken with barbecue sauce and sliced potatoes and green beans.

Oh, I saw a plane down below us, flying just a tad faster than us, and it seemed to fly under our path. Interesting. How do "they" keep track of what planes may fly at what levels and which direction?

Wende gave me some of her brownie and said "chew slowly, that's all you get." so I packed it into the roof of my mouth. She gave me another piece and I smushed it up with the rest. I even got a third little bite of brownie, and squished it up there as well. Now her brownie is all gone, but I still have some.

7:26 pm

We are above El Paso now.

Just about to exit the Texas airspace.

I'm writing a letter to my brother Fred.

7:36 pm (5:36pm Los Angeles, noon:36pm Tuesday in Melbourne)

The sunset, Wende points out is perfectly Roy G Biv in its smooth striations. Wow! It sure is. That is really amazing. How does it do that?

When we flew over El Paso, there was a cool lighted web of lights, like a glowing spiderweb fallen on the ground.

8:37 pm CST (6:37pm LA) (1:37pm tomorrow Melbourne)

We are in descent now. I think it's cool that I can feel the instant of change from stable cruising altitude to that tiny shift downward.

I have written a letter to my brother, which I will send from LA, and a letter to my mom, which I will send from Melbourne. (*)

Wende and I intend to explore around the airport a bit before we check in. We have a 3 hour layover.

10.25 hours more to stay awake.

(*) I forgot to mail it.

waitingInLA

10:44 pm CST Monday 12 February 2001

Wende writes:

okay. so i'm very super-tired and a little grumpy. i'm also more nervous about this trip than i would've expected. so here we sit at the 'daily express' and we just paid $20 for a $7 meal. a friendly airport employee (actually she is probably an American Airlines employee) suggested that we take a bus to terminal 6 and go to 'the encounter' - a restaurant that is very expensive but very cool, she says. it may turn out that i'm too much of a chicken to go anywhere... but my heart's in it. my pizza is ready now.

10:50 pm CST (8:50pm LA) (1:50pm tomorrow in Melbourne)

We're munching just barely in time for lunch in Melbourne!

The guy behind the counter was pretty much a rude mf; I wonder if that is him, or LA in general.

Getting off the plane, we had no idea which way to go in the terminal. It reminded me of the end of _Cast Away_, when Tom Hanks was at an intersection of 2 seemingly indentical roads that went off into infinity in opposing directions.

We had signs though, and followed them outside and into the International Terminal. Bunches of differnt countries' airways represented, and we finally found Quantas.

The girls behind the counter were super nice and even gave Wende an envelope so we can mail Fred his letter from here.

Our check-in time begins at 10:15, one hour before our flight leaves. It's 8:57 pm local time now.

Oh, I'm bummed that I didn't think to tell Bethany (who is in LA now, working to be on TV) that we would be here! Even more sad because Hillary is visiting her now. Doh!

11:36 pm 12-2-01

We just went outside to ride the A Bus, which makes a trek around the entire airport in about 20 minutes. This instead of riding a tram, which they apparently do not have here.

Outside, we discovered a cacauphony of honks and cars and cold rain and wind and cigarette smoke and just all kinds of blucky stuff. We saw a Bus C, but not a Bus A after several minutes standing outside.

"Let's just go back inside where it's warm."

"Okay."

We have just put addresses and stamps to mail Fred's letter to him, and copies of our passports back to Jennifer. (Inside the passport itself we read that it's good to have a copy of it at home with a friend.)

12:13 am CST Tuesday 13 February 2001

10:13pm PST Monday 12 February 2001

5:15pm MEL Tuesday 13 February 2001

We are chillin' at the gate with Irene's parents and her brother Tom. I've met them all before a various times. Parents when I first met Wende, and Tom relatively recently when he was in Houston with Irene and Nick.

We are filling out our customs survey things. "Are you bringing into Australia animals, parts of animals and products in contact with animals including equipment, eggs, biological specimens, birds, fish, insects, coral, shells, bees, bee products, pet food?"

That kind of thing.