Saturday – the day after TechEd.  Brendon and I take a cab to the airport from the hotel and get our same driver that took us from the airport to the hotel.  His car had been rear-ended and he complained about not having “his” car until Tuesday.

We get on the plane at 2:00.  Eventually they get everyone loaded and close the doors.  Then there is this knocking at the airplane door so they open the door again.  A bit later the pilot comes on announcing that there had been a mechanical problem but it had already been fixed and all that was necessary now was some paperwork.  An hour later the pilot comes back on the intercom and tells us that the maintenance people had noticed a hole in the plane while loading the luggage and that they’d just now gotten permission to fix it.  A HOLE in the PLANE!  It reminds me of that movie with Kevin Klein and Meg Ryan (French Kiss) where Kevin Klein’s character says “The pilot says there is a crack in the engine but we’ll take off anyway”.  We take off at about 4:30.

Kim picks me up and we meet Brendon and Mark Dunn at a gas station in Alpharetta to get our stuff back from Mark.  At this point Brendon and I are so tired that we just pile back into our respective cars without even saying goodbye.  So much for our plans to go out for dinner.  Kim and I get home, order Chinese food, and dump out all the stuff from TechEd so I can show her what I got.  She’s utterly unimpressed by my branded techie doodads – mostly she just wants me to get them out of the house and give them away at the UGs.  Fair enough.

I do laundry and pass out at 10 and sleep till 7am.  I packed my bags again (but I somehow managed to leave my tablet stylus behind) and head back to the airport.  This time I’ve got a 10 am flight to Hong Kong.  At least, I THINK I do.  I get in the line for international Delta flights.  I stand there for an hour until the clerk at the counter informs me that my Delta flight is operated by Korean AirLines and that I’ve got to go stand in their line!  It’s now 9:10 am.  I get to the Korean Air counter and it’s CLOSED!  so I flag down the next flight attendant I see, who politely tells me that their counter doesn’t open till 9:30 am and that my 10:00 am flight is in fact a 1:00 pm flight.  I apparently can’t read an itinerary.  Oh well, at least I’m not going to miss my flight.

— Matt Ranlett

posted with BlogJet