Independent Consultant with a Hawaiian Shirt

"I'm sorry, sir, but we couldn't hold the plane for you." Those words echoed through my mind as I trudged towards the hotel shuttle. It was 10:00pm on a Sunday night and, instead of being 35,000 feet in the air on my way to Sacramento I was trying to find out where to catch the shuttle to the Radisson Hotel in Minneapolis. Let me back up a bit. It was Sunday, January 11, 2009. Weather was bad, and system delays were predicted. As usual, my routing to Sacramento had me doing Detroit-Columbus, OH-Minneapolis-Sacramento. My problem was that I would have less than 40 minutes to make my connection in Columbus. So when a delay for my Detroit-Columbus leg was announced, I immediately went to a service desk and asked for assistance. They rebooked me on a direct flight to Minneapolis which would arrive in the same concourse (a big deal in Minneapolis) with 80 minutes to make my connection. No sweat, I thought, as I sat back in the lounge waiting to go. I boarded this new fligh...

Hi all, Sorry this has been a bit quiet as of late. I haven't gone anywhere new (Los Angeles, Sacramento, Arkansas) so I haven't been too quick with it. But it has been five weeks since the last update and I just found out that somebody other than my mom is reading this. So, here's a catch-up edition: 22-31 December 2008: Los Angeles, California We packed the bags and hauled the kids to be with my parents for Christmas. We hadn't been to California in a while, and 2008 saw us go twice - once for my father's 70th birthday back in June and now for Christmas. As you can see from the pictures, getting there was half the fun. The next day we went to Knott's Berry Farm and had a great time riding the rides and eating the food. http://picasaweb.google.com/khalaf.writes/ChristmasInLosAngelesKnottSBerryFarm During this time, Basma and I managed to sneak off for a second honeymoon in San Diego. Our first day there we walked across the street to the USS Midway Museum, a vi...