Airport Oddity

I was sitting in the Austin airport awaiting my flight back home, and I noticed some unusual activity a few gates down. I noticed some airport security standing around and what appeared to be very bright lights shining in the terminal (the lights were noticeable because it was raining pretty heavily outside, and definitely not bright enought to be sunlight).

As I moved a bit closer, I noticed a bunch of film equipment and the lights were such that it appeared they turned the terminal into a movie set. I am always fascinated with that stuff, and having plenty of time before I had to board the plane, I watched closely for a while as they were setting up the scene. It appeared they were filming a scene where 4 school friends were getting off the plane.

I didn't recognize any actors, but the director was Quentin Tarantino. I only know him from reading all about him in the entertainment world, and from seeing him in some TV cameos. Here is a photo from my camera phone, not very good quality ('cruddy-cam'), but he is the one sitting up on the camera boom.



It's not every day you see a movie being filmed in an airport.

Bueller? Bueller?

Wow. Could I BE any worse at blogging? You'd think I was the Ferris Bueller of blogging. In a way, I guess I am. Maybe I thought I could never top the Hamster entry. I don't know. At any rate, life has been pretty crazy lately, and I finally have a minute to fill you in.

Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Austin, TX attending a conference for work. Just got off the phone with The Wife who is back visiting her family in my absense and she tells me that Chunk is quite the mover. He can now roll over from back to tummy. She says he's been doing it over and over and he won't sit still long enough for her to change his diaper even! Boy, I am sad I missed that. Luckily, this travel thing is not a regular part of the job. I missed the conference last year, and I don't know if they send us back every year or if it is just a select few. So far it is good, but I am missing home badly. I seriously don't know how people can do this for a living. I still haven't recovered from my training travels back in April.

The thing to do in Austin is to watch the Congress Avenue bats. You'd think it isn't such a big deal, but seeing is believing. According to BCI (Bat Conservation International), this is the largest urban bat colony in the world. At dusk, over a million bats fly out from under this bridge every night to feed. I thought it was impressive in April, but October is even better. There are twice as many bats because the mommy bats take the baby bats out with them. I never thought i'd see a swarm of bats in my lifetime, and it really is quite awesome.

What else....What else....Oh, I did turn another year older since my last entry. The Wife and I had an actual 'date' that night sans BOTH kids for a couple of hours. It was nice. Very nice. Really nice. We had a wonderful dinner out on the town. Best birthday present ever. You need to do that once in a while. It makes you appreciate each other even more.

Well, it is late for me, with the time difference and all, so that'll do for now. As Ferris once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Productivity Enhancer

Dave Barry recently posted a link to a 'Productivity Enhancer', which simply means he found a fun little flash game on the internet. Well, I found it quite entertaining, and, well, addicting, so I just had to shared the joy:

Flight of the hamsters

Don't say I didn't warn you.

UPDATE: I set a new record today: 634 feet total, including one flight of 293 feet!

UPDATE: I have been a couple of days Hamster-free, and just decided to try again for fun tonight. Get this: 842 feet! The first flight was a whopping 375! The key is hitting those rockets just right.