It has been a strange couple of days. I have had my trip volcanoed. I have been on TV. I have inherited a foosball table. I have won a free trip to the Bahamas. And Carmen Electra is apparently somehow involved…
I planned to travel to Würzburg Germany by way of Amsterdam and Frankfurt this week, but the Icelandic volcano that shut down all of plane travel eventually shut down my trip as well. On Saturday I drove down to the Portland International Airport to talk with my airline directly about rebooking—the telephones were completely jammed. They managed to book me on a flight through Milan mid-week, but now I will have to cancel that as well.
While I was working on my booking with the agent, a reporter from KGW TV walked up to talk to me about the travel situation. I chatted with him for a few minutes, and then turned to the ticket counter. My agent had vanished. She reapppeared a minute or two later, saying "I didn't want to be on TV." My clip made the news; I looked fat and acted ridiculous, but no news there I guess.
My mother was in town for a couple of days. She drove up and delivered the foosball table we had had when I was a child. I didn't want the thing, but my wife and boy did; they're working on cleaning out the garage enough to make a space for it now. It has sentimental value to my wife, but I don't really care so much about it. Foosball is one of those games like electric vibrating table football that you played before there were decent computer games, IMHO. Anyway, it was great to see Mom again.
A while back I was entered in a Zynga Poker challenge with a prize of a free Caribbean Cruise to the Bahamas. Their travel company called Saturday to tell me I had won. I think they offer it to anybody and everybody—it was pretty clearly an attempt to upsell to a travel package, which they successfully did. It seems like it's going to be fun. Although the reviews I've since found of the company online are quite mixed, the folks who actually traveled seem to have had a good time.
While I was on hold with the cruise line, they played a little tape narrated by Carmen Electra about the cruise, which I thought was weird. Later that evening my boy and I were watching the Simpsons; lo and behold, there was Carmen Electra again.
Sometimes things are just strange. (B)