Hello Again...

Well, things finally feel back to normal! I am now working by part time schedule again. I will be working 3 days a week on average. Which is just perfect! I really love my new job! I love the work itself, the patients, my co-workers... So that is going well.

Payton has been on iron for the last month because she has low hemoglobin. She had her blood drawn last week just to check up on it, and she is still low. I brought her in this morning to have more blood drawn. They are doing more tests this time to check it all out better. Poor baby! She actually had to have her blood taken from her arm instead of her finger. She was NOT thrilled! Hopefully this couple more months on iron will do the trick. She has had a cold and cough for a couple of weeks, the doctor says it is a virus. She just can't seem to get rid of this one! The poor kid is up coughing at night. Last night she actually slept the whole night through for the first time in a while. The good this is that she seems to not be too bothered by it in the daytime...

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!

Well, I now have a new found respect for mom's that work full time! I am only working full time for 2 weeks and I feel that our home is in shambles! I now have a hour lunch (pretty nice for a nurse:)) and I am able to go and visit Payton at daycare. So I really don't feel too guilty on the mom front, but man this past weekend I felt that I had to do SO much to get ready for Christmas. I am working all this week too.

Payton is doing great at daycare. She is actually napping well and eating even better. She popped her 7th tooth this weekend. She as been super crabby with this teething right now. Which is totally new for her! That and we think she may be having a little growth spurt, she is eating us out of house and home! Which is, for all of you out there that have taken care of my daughter, totally new for her too! Usually she could care less about food.

Well, work is going well. I have the cold that Brian and Payton had last week, and we are almost ready for Christmas. My parents are coming out later this week. Should be a fun holiday with our crabby girl:) Happy Holidays to everyone!

I'm back

Made it back without any major incidents on Saturday. Our flight leaving Tokyo was delayed by an hour for a mechanical problem but since I wasn't catching a connecting flight it wasn't a big deal. The 747 I was on must have been the oldest aircraft I have ever been on. I'm sure it is just fine mechanically, but the inside needs some updating. I'm sure its not too cheap to gut the insides of these beasts to make them more modern. The 747 is definitely the mother of all jet airliners. The thing is huge! The new Airbus A380 which is coming out soon is similar in size to the 747 but it has two levels of seating for the whole aircraft. This will allow many more passengers of course. But I think it may be too big....the 747 is the right size for the job. Ford made the Excursion for a few years to compete with the Suburban. The Ford was a bigger hoping that would attract more customers, but they didn't come. The Excursion only lasted a few years. The A380 may suffer the same problem. The 747 does its job very well and a bigger jet may not be able to displace it as the mother of all jetliners.

Anyway, its good to be back. Payton put on her little show for me...walking for me shortly after I got home. Very exciting! Its good to be back on American food and relaxing at home. The next trip will be too soon I'm sure.

Airplanes

12/10/2005 6:00 pm CST

Here I am at 38000 feet again between Singapore and Tokyo. I'm in the exact same seat I was in last week. This flight is quite full so I have someone next to me. That's no big deal because I'm not planning on sleeping anyway. I've got to try and get back on central time.

The flight from Malaysia to Singapore was on a 777 and now I'm on an A330 again. These planes are very similar in size and capacity but there are several difference. The most obvious is the seating configuration. The 777 has 3-3-3 for 9 total across while the A330 has 2-4-2 for 8 across. Not a big deal just one more middle seat on the 777. Here's where the differences are really noticed...the seat comfort. The A330 does not have very comfortable seats. They sit very upright and don't recline as nicely as the 777. The 777 also has better legroom. Now this may be specific to whichever airline you happen to be on, but on Singapore Air, the 777 has much better legroom than on a Northwest A330. I could stretch my legs straight out on the 777 without a problem. I can't do that on the A330...my shins hit the bottom of the seat in front of me. On top of that, the control equipment for the interactive video is under each seat further reducing legroom. I didn't notice where the equipment on the 777 was located, but it wasn't under my seat. I just thought I'd mention this to anyone thinking of buying a jet and starting their own airline.

How did she do that?

Today after Payton's nap I went into her room because I could hear her "talking". She was just laying on her back sucking her thumb. I had some laundry to put away and she seemed to be still waking up so I put her laundry away and she was still laying there. That is weird for her. Usually if I let her wake up more she starts to crawl to the side of the crib and stand up. When I went to get her I noticed that her leg was through the slat of her crib up to her knee and she was just banging away smiling. She wasn't smiling long... I don't know how she got that little leg through there, but I had a hard time getting it out! She was just screaming. I had to pull the entire crib away from the wall and really wiggle and push that sucker through!! She is no worse for wear, but man, that leg was stuck!! Silly girl!

Daddy comes home tomorrow, and I think Payton will be SO happy to have him home! She has only had me to play with:) I know I will be happy!

You know you are SO lucky when...

your husband is on the other side of the globe and you recieve a HUGE bouquet of flowers from him!

Durian

du·ri·an Pronunciation: 'dur-E-&n, -E-"än also 'dyur-
noun
Etymology: Malay
1 : a large oval tasty but foul-smelling fruit with a prickly rind

That's the Merriam-Webster definition...now here's what I think.

The first thing you might notice about the durian "fruit" (and I use the term fruit loosely) is that it looks like a weapon. It probably could be used as a weapon because it is quite hard, but what would do your opponent in is the smell! The thing stinks to high heaven!! Its difficult to describe but someone said it smell like propane...I guess that's close enough. If you can tell from the picture, its made up of pods on the inside. These pull right out without resistance and is the part you eat. There's a thin membrane that hold in the "meat" which I can only describe as having the consistancy of warm sour cream. Once you bite into it it will kinda start to ooze out. I don't particularly care for creamy fruit. The flavor is also quite awful. Again, no real good way to describe it...just plain awful!! Now, your've disobeyed the warning signs: prickly rind, really smelly, weird texture, tastes bad...now one last thing. Once you eat it, you continue to burp it up for quite awhile after, depending on how much you ate. And the burps taste just as bad as when it went down. I only took two bites of this thing and I was burping for about an hour. Some of the Malaysians I was with just kept eating the stuff...they can have it!

New Acheivement...

Payton has had a busy weekend! My parents are here to keep us company and as you read in the couple previous blogs Brian left on Friday morning around 6am. He was not gone even 12 hours and Payton walked on her own! I was so happy to see it, but so sad that Brian missed it! Thank goodness mom and dad were her to share it with me! She took a couple of steps on her own while holding on to a book over her head, I think she though it was my moms hand! Then I ran and got the digital camcorder and got her walking about 3-4 feet. Same thing, with the book up over her head! I told Brian that now I just need to get her potty trained and talking before he gets home! Yeah right! I am not that crazy!

I've arrived!

Finally!!!
I am at my destination of Penang, Malaysia. I'll be here for the next five days visiting our contract manufacturer. I have various things to discuss with them as well as tour the line and hopefully visit some of their suppliers in the area. Since I'm in quality its my job to make sure they're doing things correctly. Fortunately they are very capable and willing to do just about anything we ask.
Here's how the rest of the trip went....
I arrived in Singapore around 12:30am local time. They have a transit hotel right in the terminal so you don't have to go through customs. You don't get your luggage either, but if you packed some clean undies and your toothbrush in your carryon then things will be just fine. The connecting flight diddn't leave until 11:00am so I had some time to take a shower and get some rest. Of course, resting isn't all that easy when your body thinks its 10:00 am! I managed to sleep a couple hours so today I'm not too groggy. The flight ot Penang was only a little over an hour from Singapore. Too bad it couldn't have been all in one day rather than the long layover in Singapore. Penang is hot, humid, and tropical as you might expect being about 5 degrees north of the equator. So far its not altogether unpleasant, but I've only been here a short time and haven't really seen much yet.
One of the guys we're here to see is taking us to dinner tonight, so that should be interesting. I've got a few hours before that happens so I think I'll try to rest a little.

Lots of miles

Its just after 8:00pm central time on Friday 12/2. My first flight left this morning after 10:00am...there were delays. I was supposed to leave at 9:30. Fortunately they held the connection to Tokyo in Portland. I don't imagine there are too many flights availabel if I was to miss it. I am currently at 38881 feet traveling at a ground speed of 536 mph with 2920 miles traveled and 2032 miles to go...about 4 more hours. I know this because this is a fairly new plane (Airbus A330-200) that has an interactive screen on each seat so I can get up to the minute stats on the flight.

The total flight time to Tokyo is somewhere around 10 hours. There's a brief layover then another 7 hours to Singapore...same plane, same seat. The on demand movies have helped pass the time nicely. I watched "Wallace and Gromet: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "The Dukes of Hazard". "Dukes" was alright, but a bit off the mark if trying to be like the tv show. I thoroughly enjoyed "Were-Rabbit" and would recommend it to people of all ages. It was a very clever movie with some great animation. The meal on the plane was quite good...chicken with redskin potatoes and green beans. It also came with shrimp cocktail, chocolate cake, and wine. They also came by with ice cream sandwiches not too long ago. The treatment isn't too bad on these international flights.
The flight isn't all that full so I dont' have anybody sitting next to me. I can get more comfortable by resting against the window and stretching across the seat next to me. I think I'm going to try and get some rest now so that I'm not a total zombie when I finally get to Malaysia. They are 14 hours ahead so it might be a difficult adjustment.