I'll be around ... sorta ... (April)

[Aitana]

Work is busy right now and so is my personal life. Here's my schedule for the month:
3/27 - 3/30 - activities at church related to Easter. I might be able to raid on Saturday night.

4/2 - 4/9 - out of town for a church conference. I won't be able to play WoW at all, although I will probably be able to stop in to visit the forums.

4/11 - 4/13 - do taxes if we can't get them done before then. With the way the rest of the month looks, there is a good chance we will be spending all weekend on this and some other household things. Don't count on me for raiding.

4/18 - 4/20 - volunteer work (away from home) and no internet access.

Somewhere in there my family will probably want to spend some time together, and I have a newsletter (358 copies) to prepare, publish and mail for a volunteer organization I'm in.

What this means is that I really shouldn't be playing very much WoW for about a month. I'll probably stop in to do a few daily quests, chat a bit and a few other things, but not much else.

[Baelspar]

Well, the fish of Zangermarsh are likely glubbing their glubs of relief.

Hopefully the chores of April will see you handsomely rewarded, I hear that the IRS has serious gold drops. They're rare, but hopefully you get one.

[Warburn]

I've been sparse too, and miss you already, I hope to catch you on the few/er times you get on.

Make sure to raid the easter eggs. And hope you get the epic trinket that gives you +5% to online time, and +5% to avoid the effects of a tax audit.
(( cheesiest/geekiest/lamest joke I came up with today - but thought you it might give jah a smile))

[Aitana]

Now about this church conference I'm going to this weekend, it's in Hawaii. I got in last night and my husband called me this morning. The first words out of his mouth after telling me he missed me was to ask if I had heard the news. Naturally I hadn't. So now I have a week to figure out how I'm going to get back to Arizona. [sarcasm] Oh, darn, I'm stuck in Hawaii. [/sarcasm]

[Aitana]

The flight I took was booked through Southwest, but flight was a codeshare with ATA. ATA stopped all flights and declared bankruptcy this morning. I spent about 1/2 hour redialing so that I could end up on never-ending hold. I was on hold all through breakfast, on the drive to Pearl Harbor, and through entering the site. I finally gave up after about 2 1/2 hours when it was time to start the recorded tour of the site.

Later, I spent about 1 1/2 hours to finally reach a person who asked me if I want to be rescheduled to go on another airline or if I would like to cancel my flight and get a refund. Somehow either staying in Hawaii or swimming back to mainland USA do not seem like realistic options, so I asked to be rescheduled. He told me he would have to transfer me to somebody else for that *cry* I asked if there was another number he could give me so that I could try again later. He assured me that the only option was for me to continue to hold. An hour later the cell phone battery gave out *cry*

So far today I have spent over 5 hours on hold with no success in actually talking to a person that can reschedule me on another flight.

[Warburn]

Aww poor Aitana,. How can you take being stranded on a tropical island?!
Too much sandy beaches and sun rays?

If I could switch places with you, as horrible as your predicament might be, I would! After all that's what friends are for.

/comfort
/envy

[Aitana]

There are definitely worse places I could be for something like this to happen. The weather has been beautiful. The conference was good. I saw the volcano on the big island, went snorkeling for the first time in my life and got to see a lot of fish around a corral reef not far from a black sand beach, saw the sights at Kilauea volcano, hiked in a lava tube, saw lava flow into the ocean, and did more sightseeing. The tourist and business parts of this trip have been great, although I could have done without the sunburn, but it's not too bad. The biggest annoyance has been hotels that charge for internet access. For future reference, Sheraton hotels charge, but Aqua, Best Western and Marriot don't. Tonight I'm staying at a Best Western. Making arrangements to get back to Phoenix, though .... That has been a challenge.

I already mentioned the problems trying to get to talk to anybody from the Southwest. I eventually got through on the next day (Friday) and they rebooked me on a flight through Alaska. The new flight involved going through Seattle and then changing plane to go to Phoenix. That was less convenient than my original non-stop flight from Honolulu to Phoenix, but all things considered, I was just happy to have a way home that didn't cost me additional airfare. I went about my merry way and tonight (Tuesday) I went to print out my boarding pass. That's when I ran into a snag.

It turns out that when Southwest rebooked me, they failed to look at the direction of travel. I needed a flight from Honolulu to Phoenix. They rebooked me to fly from Phoenix to Honolulu. I spent about 1/2 hour on the phone while they worked on finding me a flight that would work. Well, they did, and it didn't involve any additional airfare, but I won't get home until Thursday, and I will have to spend the night in Seattle. There hasn't been any additional airfare, but the changes have extended my travel time by two days, added two nights of hotel expenses and meals. Visa will love me after this. Considering I didn't pack for this, I should probably check out the hotel's laundry facilities tomorrow so I will have something clean to wear on the trip home. I will also have to let my boss know that I won't make it in to work on Thursday morning.

I just wish I had a laptop I could play WoW on. Withdrawal hasn't been too gruesome since I've been busy, but it would be nice to play now that I'm stuck in hotels and airports.

[Aitana]

Well, things are almost back to normal. My parents are coming to visit this weekend and I need to do some serious cleaning before then. I won't be raiding while they're here either, although I might be able to stop in for a bit from time to time.