Southwest Airlines Goes Bowling!

Our local station likes to have fun with our employees.  Not just on the job but away from work as well.  It's been awhile since we've done it but last night, we went bowling!  It's a great way to get out and have some fun. 

My co-worker, Tim Wald, operations supervisor, was in charge of arranging our night out.  He spoke with the owners of Sempeck's Bowling Center.  We were able to do some trading with them; buddy passes for travel in exchange for some of the services they offered.   This night was an employee and spouse/date night only.  Typically, we try to have "family oriented" events set up.  But sometimes you just need to leave those kids at home, right?!  

Each person from our group that bowled, was given a free pair of nifty socks with a design of a bowling ball and pins around the ankle.  How neat!  The women's varied slightly from the men's.   We had 4 lanes reserved just for us and at each lane there were chips and salsa for our enjoyment.  Alcohol had to be purchased and it seemed to be flowing quite easily for some.  We had such a great time! 

Co-workers Lori, Nanci and Tim

Nanci and Lori



Me, Tim and Lori



Me and my gear.  Do I look professional? 



Me walking like an Egyptian!



Our entire group that came out....so much fun!



Co-worker Don and his wife Kathy

Co-worker Scott and his wife Cindy

Co-workers Lisa, Don and I



Co-worker Lori having just bowled a strike.  The proof is on the computer moniter over her head! 



Co-worker Tim being a geek with cowboy boots and a drink in his hand.  Only Tim can pull this off.....


We had 2 hours to bowl as many games as we could or wanted to.  After most everyone left, Tim, Lisa and I stuck around for one more cocktail at the bar and then headed home.  I still had to work the next day bright and early so I couldn't over do anything!  Thanks to all the employees that were able to make it out!

Easter Sunday

Today will be a quiet day as Beverly is in the hospital and Dad and I will go there to spend a good portion of the day with her. 

I got up this morning and made a big breakfast of french toast with sausage and coffee.  While we were eating, I had put some bedding in the wash to help a little in the house.  After getting to Dad's last night, I changed the bedding for the bed I was using and then this morning Dad took the sheets off their bed as well. 

We planned on going to the hospital in time for Beverly's dinner and also eat there with her.  While we were all eating, Beverly's daughter Kathy (Jacobson) Huravitch walked in for a visit.  She lives in Stanley, ND and came to Tioga for part of the day. 

After spending several hours there, Dad and I went back to their house to relax a bit and visit. I actually fell asleep while sitting in a comfy chair for awhile.  Sister Cathy called from Oregon and brother Kevin called my cell phone to see where we were.  He had tried Dad's house but he was on the other line with Cathy and didn't answer!  So eventually, we all connected for an Easter visit! 

That night for supper I made spaghetti and garlic bread for our supper.  I had scrounged in the freezer after I arrived the night before to find things to make for our meals.  Dad later went back to the hospital for another visit with Beverly.  I stayed home to clean up after our supper.  While I was sitting in the living room watching TV and using my lap top, I heard someone talking and discovered my Aunt Penny, Dad's sister, coming in the door.  She knew I was in town and stopped on her way home from a trip to Williston.  It was fun to visit with her! 

She left for home and soon after, Dad arrived back home.  We sat up for a long time just talking before going to bed.  It had been a very relaxing Easter Sunday, albeit much less food and excitement than would normally occur in our family on Easter!

Dad and Hattie....Kathy Huravitch's dog



Hattie showing off her pretty pink bows on her ears. 



Just a Quick Hop Home

My last trip home to ND was last summer in August.  One of the reasons it's been so long since I was there is the simple fact that the weather there has been relentless.  It seems like they have had one storm after another since last fall.  At Christmas time, my family came to Omaha.  In January when I always have vacation during the first week of the year, I opted to stay home again, because Mother Nature felt the need to stir things up in the upper Midwest.  The roads were always icy or covered with snow.  Each month since then, I've heard the reports of other snow storms that had passed through as well.  The state of ND just couldn't catch a break this winter!  So I've post poned my trips back home whenever I've thought I would go.  Finally, the weather in ND was supposed to be nice for the Easter holiday and I decided to make the trip home.   

My plan was set in motion to drive to my brother and sister-in-law's house today.  Then Saturday I'll go to Dad and Beverly's.  I still had to work today until 1:30 PM.  After work I went home to get my things ready to go and make sure my cats would be okay until the next day when one of my friends would stop by and check on them.  I stopped for gas on the way out of town and when I finally got on the road, it was 3 o'clock.  I thought for sure that I'd tire very soon due to the fact that I'd been up since 3 AM for work.  But I guess I was really excited to go home because I didn't stop one time to nap; I felt wide awake! 

The weather was nice which made for good driving conditions. 

As I was driving through SD near Brookings, Dad called to see if I had heard the weather report for ND.  The forecast was for snow/slushy driving conditions near Bismarck and travel would probably be an issue.  Really???  Great!  What happened to the nice weather?  I needed to stop in Brookings anyway, for refueling and something to eat.  So while I was there I checked the weather conditions on my phone and texted Kevin to see what the weather was like in Dickinson.  It looked like the south edge of the weather system that was moving through was hovering over Interstate 94, my route to Kevin's.  Lovely.....

I was hoping by the time I got to the Bismarck area, that it would be out of there or melted....one or the other.  So after making my stops I continued on my way north up Interstate 29.  Wouldn't you know it, about an hour later, I drove into rainy weather and eventually fog.  The fog was so thick that I could hardly see directly in front of my own vehicle.  This continued for about 20 miles.  Little did I know that the rain would never end, for the rest of my drive!  I had MANY hours to go!

Thankfully, the roads were only wet for the rest of the drive.  However, I'd had enough of rain for one day!  It is a little monotenous to have to keep watching the window wipers!  I made a few more stops along the way and arrived in Dickinson around 1AM mountain time.  It was almost 24 hours since I had gotten up for the day.  Ish. 

My nieces didn't know I was going to be there.  Well, at least two of them didn't.  Suzanna had seen some comments I had made on Face Book and kind of figured it out.  So the next morning after having slept a little upstairs in Hillary's room, I snuck down to the basement and found Suzanna awake and watching some TV.  She wasn't exactly surprised to see me!  But we still giggled with excitement to see each other.  Then I went to Abigail's room and woke her up.  She was so surprised she lept out of bed to give me a hug!  Then we went into Suzanna's room where Hillary was asleep on the floor.  Abigail told her we had a surprise for her.  She saw me and said "Auntie Sandy!  I'm so glad you're here!"  It was fun to surprise them!  We all went out to the family room and just sat around talking and laughing.  Upstairs Kevin and Susan were listening to the squeels and getting breakfast ready. 

That day, I was going to help Kevin with his weekly Saturday meal that he prepares with the help of one of the girls or Susan. He nominated me to help this week being I was there.  Here is what we prepared, in Kevin's words.  We made the meal for dinner instead of for supper, as I would be leaving for Dad's and they had church to attend.  It was very yummy!! 

Later we played Norwegian Whist and soon it was time for me to leave for Dad's.  Kevin's family had to get ready for church and eat supper before hand.  So we said our goodbye's and out the door I went for my 2 1/2 hour drive north. 



Abigail, Me, Kevin, Hillary and Suzanna

Abigail, Hillary and Suzanna coloring Easter eggs. 



Driving north to Dad's.  The scenery is gorgeous even though the roads are pretty bad with craters from all the oil field traffic! 




Sunset over ND



One of the hundreds of oil drilling rigs that have moved into the area. 



Gorgeous

Highway 22 north out of Dickinson and then highway 1804 takes me most of the way to Dad's.  However, when I got to the junction of 1804, there was a construction sign that said "road closed to thru traffic."  Really???  Great!  It was my connection to highway 2 that goes to Tioga.  I only had about 30 minutes left of my drive!  I had to drive west, almost to Williston.  I found the gravel road that goes north into Epping.  From there I made my way to highway 2 and then into Tioga.  Sheesh!  It was almost 10 PM when I arrived at Dad's!  An extra hour added to my drive that should have only taken 2 1/2 hours! 
After I got there, Dad and I went to see Beverly, whom was in the hospital and had been there for a couple of days by then.  Now, you have to realize that Tioga hospital is small.  Even at the late hour, we were able to go see Beverly.  The nurses know Dad and let us in.  We sat there for about an hour. 
Then we went to their house and visited a while before going to bed.  Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.

Movie Night

Saturday evening I had a phone call from my friend Trisa.  She asked if I would like to join she and her husband and our other friend Tina for dinner and a movie that night.  Sure why not?  I'm always up for that!
The plan was for me to go to their house and we would go to Tina's to pick her up.  The theater that we were going to was close by Tina's house.  Aksarben Cinema was our destination for a movie.  It's a new theater that just opened this last December.  We hadn't really decided on where to go for dinner but as it turned out, we ran out of time for that anyway.  A friend of our had been working on Trisa's car that day and he called while we were enroute to Tina's to say that it was done.  We made a detour to the auto shop and picked up her car so she'd have it for the rest of the weekend.  So our time to eat diminished. 
We found Tina ready to go and headed to the cinema.  They had a pretty decent choice of snacks and drinks and ended up buying items such as chicken strips and popcorn.  This would have to do and was actually enough for me with a beverage. 
The movie we had decided on was called The Lincoln Lawyer.  I wasn't sure about it from having seen a few previews but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. 



It stars Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei and Ryan Phillipe, just to name a few.  It's a court room drama and kept me involved by the evidence that was uncovered and linked to everyone involved.  I personally liked the movie overall. 

We had kept our receipts from the movie as they could be used at a neighboring business for a discount. 
Jones Bros. Cupcakes and Cafe was offering $.50 off the purchase of one cupcake of your choice.  We hadn't been there before (the Aksarben Village is a fairly new addition in the middle of Omaha) and we had seen television commercials for it.  So after the movie we headed over to have a little dessert. 
We walked in to a crowded cafe and found our place in line.  After "ooohing and ahhhing" at all the delicious looking goodies, we made our selections and headed out the door.  These cupcakes are very large!  The frosting is so thick and heavy, and piled up so high that when we took it out of the box that it came in, it wanted to tip right over!  But it was soooo very tasty! 

Our stomachs full, we had talked briefly to our friend Tammy.  They were at home and other friends' Scott and Lisa were there.  So off we went to Tammy's.  We thought we'd stop by and say "Hi" before going home. 
It was a fun "spur-of-the-moment" plan for the night and I enjoyed the entire night.  I don't get out to the movies often due to the expense of one movie ticket ($9 at Aksarben Cinema) but occasionally I splurge. 

Another must-see.....

The other night, I happened to watch the premier of a new television sitcom:  Happy Endings.  I was laughing the entire way through!  It reminded me of the former hot sitcom, Friends.  I had seen the previews but had forgotten that it would be on.  I accidently ran across it and just decided on the spot, to watch.  It was very entertaining and I was laughing the whole time!  I highly suggest watching.....Wednesday nights at 9 central on ABC.

Ladies Night

Every once in a while I do an event or party with my friend Tammy.  She is a representative for Lia Sophia jewelry.  Hostess's have had a dual party in the past and we each present our products (mine is Tastefully Simple) and share the night and the customers.  It's a win win situation for all involved.  So, today was no exception. 

On Thursday nights at Nebraska Brewing Co., it's Ladies Night.  Tammy has for some time, been taking her jewelry one Thursday night a month, to the brewery.  This last week, she asked the manager if I could join her.  He thought it was a great idea!  So we met there and set up our things at adjoining tables for all to browse and shop.  Graduation and Mother's Day are just a couple reasons like to shop this time of year.  Our products make great gift ideas. 

Me and Tammy sitting in front of some barrels of aging beer.

The brewing process happens here.



Here is the main bar area.  There is ample seating in the loft, where I'm standing to take this picture, and also to the right in a larger restaurant style area. 

The front of the brewery.  It's located at Shadow Lake shopping plaza. 


We enjoyed some fresh ale ourselves.  For the ladies the special was any draw beer (on tap) for $ .75/glass.  Can't beat that!  We also ordered food as we were there right over supper time.  I had the Drunk'n Chicken Strips and Tammy ate the Mushroom and Swiss burger with Sweet Potato Fries.  Very tasty! 
Many people walking by would stop and shop or simple browse and keep walking.  We were able to get many more contacts for our business besides each having a few sales so it was worth it for us.

Scary Event Hits Home

I just wanted you to know.........

Anyone that has heard of the Southwest Airlines depressurization event that occurred last week, also has heard that the incident was an isolated event.  Thankfully, no one was hurt and the plane landed with out incident. 
As you know, I'm a ramp agent for SWA in Omaha.  When we hear of something like this happening, it's as scary for us to hear about as it is for any relative of those passengers on board the flight.  We're all one big happy family at SWA and it always hits home for us as employees as well. 

Here is the link to CNN's story from that day. 

Since that day, the FAA has reported that the cause was metal fatigue.  The required maintenance had been done and was not to blame.  Southwest has three types of Boeing 737 aircraft:  300 Series, 500 Series and 700 Series.  The 700's are the newest models in our fleet.  Because of the incident, all of the 300 Series airplanes have been taken out of service in order to perform close inspections of them and hopefully prevent the same thing from happening again. 

I've had a few comments made to me all in good fun and joking about it, because I'm an employee with SWA.  It's easy to joke of now but we certainly always take things such as this with utmost seriousness. 
We have an outstanding record of safety and it is something we are very proud of.  Hopefully people won't make decisions on whether or not to fly Southwest Airlines based on this single occurrence.