Putting my photos up on Flickr has really turned a lot of communication my way — from a lot of different quarters.

Including…  Schmap.

Schmap is map-mash with photos to indicate places of interest, events, etc…  Kinda neat!

Two of my photos were included with the latest editions for Chicago and Galway.

The Chicago entry, although the photo was taken in Grant Park, is NOT at the Grant Park Music Festival, rather it is at Lollapalooza 2008.

The Galway entry is of the Great Southern Hotel.

Neither of the photos are anywhere NEAR the best photos I have taken, but it is still nice to see my name next to a photo credit! 

woo!

coupla hundred photos from:

200807 – Upstate NY Trip

200807 – NYC Trip

i flew from nyc (jfk) to syracuse last friday — on jetblue.  it was late afternoon and i expected to be delayed…

we all boarded, etc…  late, natch, and then proceeded to wait.  and wait.  about 20 minutes after our flight should have taken off, the pilot comes out of the cockpit — while we are still at the gate — and jumps on the intercom.

“frank?  frank from ATC.  where are you?  raise your hand, frank…”

(i cannot actually remember if the guy’s name was frank…)

some guy behind me raises his hand and the pilot says:

“everyone, this is frank from ATC.  he will be getting us some preferential treatment today!”

the main door is closed.  we push back and start heading toward the taxiway.  like most airports, there is an inner (close to the gates) and an outer (close to the runways) taxiway.  most people know all about the outer taxiway — especially in nyc — as it is usually the one with a gazillion planes all lined up.  it was no different that day.  i could see almost 20 planes (i later found out it was 23) ahead of us in line.  the pilot jumps on the intercom again:

“thanks to frank, we will be taking off right away!”

and so we did.  we hit the inner taxiway and bypassed all 23 planes in front of us for takeoff.  we never stopped at all and hit the runway at speed after making two sharp turns.

this was not the end of frank’s magic.

as we descended through 10,000 feet on approach to syracuse, the pilot jumped on the intercom again:

“thanks to frank, we will be landing immediately.  flight attendants, please be seated.”

i have flown A LOT over the years and i have never heard a pilot ask the FAs to sit down at 10,000 feet.  ever.  it usually takes ~20-30 minutes to land after you hit approach.

not the case here.

immediately after he finished speaking, he made a massive bank turn that had my window on the right side of the plane looking almost directly down at the carrier dome.  freaky!

it then took, no kidding, less than 5 minutes until we were on the ground taxiing toward our syracuse gate.

i don’t know who this frank character is/was.  in fact, i never actually saw him.  but he is clearly magical.  i highly recommend flying with him at any time!

there was a time…  long ago…  when i was in high school…

a bunch of us used to a) go to spilkas for seafood and bad beer and b) joke about going to spilkas for seafood and bad beer.  clams, man.  clams.

i would point to it every time i passed it on the way in to see my family in the last 15 years…  it was closed for quite a long time.  on my most recent trip, i saw the beautiful neon “open” sign all lit up.  spilka’s was open!  (i have no idea for how long…)

and then…

kevin sent me this article from a local utica tv station.  apparently, it is not only open, but people are (still?) getting whacked there.  harsh.  is the prospect of death worth the experience at spilka’s?  that’s a definite maybe. 

as alison and i were driving in to clinton this past weekend, we were headed down route 5 past sangertown square and decided to cut through the mall to get to the grocery store.  approaching the mall entrance, there were a bunch of flares down on the road and a few police cars.

driving slow…  looking to see what happened…  we saw piles of “stuff” in the road.  indescribable, really.  although, i thought, at the time, that one of the pieces looked like a “side of beef”.

apparently…  it sort of was.  parts is parts, man. 

(thanks to kevin for the link…)

yes. i know that we got married last october.

we recently finished the “blog” and put up ALL the photos from our honeymoon in ireland.

check it out:

Alison & Eric’s Honeymoon in Ireland – Blog

Alison & Eric’s Honeymoon in Ireland – Photos

the harry potter “powers that be” are getting together with universal studios’ theme park in orlando for…

the wizarding world of harry potter

nice! i love theme parks and i am totally interested in seeing what kind of ride they come up with!

it’s true. alison and i have a “wedding website”

www.alisonanderic.org

on 23 dec, leave the house for a flight from JFK to SYR 2.25 hours early… it is raining cats and dogs and monkeys.

takes 2.5 hours to get to the airport.

miss my flight by… do the math.

desk agent says she will book me on the next flight — 7.5 hours in the future… cool, i think, i can check my bag in 2.5 hours and then go to the bar, use the free wireless hotspot, and play poker for a few hours…

get to the desk a few hours later… i’m on STANDBY and in *TENTH*

leave airport.

i have now spent $246 and am still in nyc.

book a metro north train for the next day.
miss the train.

overslept.

take the next one to poughkeepsie.

dad picks my up and we drive the 2.5 hours to clinton.

on 26 dec, i got up at 405am for a 620am flight from SYR to JFK…

got there about 1 hour ahead of the flight. sky cap’ed it. security line? out to the parking garage. made my flight by 3 minutes.

next?

arrive at JFK and try to find my bags.

nowhere.

45 minutes later? “on a different carousel”.

get into a cab to go to LGA and arrive to meet alison 1 hour before our 1000am flight to newport news.

get on the plane and taxi out. wait 2.5 hours on the tarmack.

taxi back to LGA.

there is a BLIZZARD in newport friggin’ news, VA.
VIRGINIA!

get on a 930 *PM* flight to newport news…

wait *2 hours* for bags…

20 minutes to clean off the 12 inches on the rental car….

get on the road for our 90 mile drive to the outerbanks.

get exactly 3.78 miles in 2.5 hours.

arrive in driveway at the house at 411am.

at which point i had been awake for 24 hours.

end. story.

coming back? we arrive 5 hours early at newport news. get on the earlier flight. arrive 15 minutes early off that. our bags are first out. and we are home before our “real” flight would have left.