Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! I was able to come back home to Florida on Wednesday after an exhaustive "non-revenue" travel experience. Because of the horrid weather across the U.S., flights were cancelled and overloaded. Consequently I wound up in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday night and had to spend the night at the Courtyard Marriott - FLL Airport and catch a Continental Connection flight home on Tuesday morning. My sister cooked a wonderful meal today. We had a deep fried turkey, pork roast, turnip greens, green bean casserole, rice, dressing, deviled eggs, lima beans, crescent rolls and chocolate layer cake! Yum Yum Yum!

Okay, now on to Christmas. I asked for (and got!) something I always wanted from my childhood. Something that my Mom said she would make for me, but never got the chance to....a sock monkey. Now I thought everybody knew what a sock monkey was, but my sister didn't - she had to look it up online. Here's what they look like -
Now my friends (one in particular - you know who you are Brian) makes fun of me for asking for this gift. However, it was almost 1 year ago since my Mom passed away, so this was the year that I needed this sock money for many different reasons :) I got my sister and brother-in-law a camera and Z16 from Kodak, my oldest niece a necklace, my younger niece some earrings and my nephew a shirt.

My sister, brother in law and myself went and picked out some nice white Poinsettias to put at Mom and Dad's grave. DeAnna and I took them up there today after Christmas dinner. I guess I'll be down here until the weekend. My best friend wants me to go to Las Vegas with him to visit friends for New Years. I made my flight reservations the other day, so I guess I'll go.

It's 9:20am and I just got to
Sunny Orlando where I will be on company business for a few days. At
least it is nice and warm here; although the weather is not supposed
to be as cold in New York as it was this past weekend!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Great News!

My friend Jose who has been in the United States for about 10 years, had his final interview with Immigration last week. He got his permanent Green Card!! I am so happy for him! He just made his flight reservations back home to Colombia to see his family he hasn't in such a long time.

My Trip to Bogota, Colombia

I went to Bogota, Colombia December 1-3, 2008. My airline is beginning non-stop service from Orlando at the end of January, so I had a few days to check out the area and see what to expect. Flew down on Avianca in a 767 - they do a nice service, but I am not really a fan of the 767 unless they have gone through a major interior overhaul. I much prefer the DC10. Once in Bogota, I found it very interesting that the hotel had no air conditioning or heating. I found out that Bogota has no seasons and the weather remains constant year-round. It was pleasant during the day, and a tad chilly in the evening. Bogota is great for shopping; especially for leather, emeralds and 18kt gold! The exchange rate is around 2,140 Colombian pesos to each US Dollar - so it's relatively cheap. We hired (through a reputable source) a taxi and driver to take us to shopping and dining locations for 15,000 pesos per hour - so for our own personal car and driver for 4 hours came to $40USD including a generous tip! Can you imagine what 4 hours for a car in NYC would cost?