It's a gas, gas, gas....

During my recent trip to Chicago, Doug (one of the guys I went with) and I decided to take a trip to South Bend, Indiana, to see the University of Notre Dame campus. He's a big ND fan, I guess. I went along because I figured it was the only time I would be anywhere near there, so why not take a few pics?

We have a general idea as to where we're going, but I bring along the EeePC loaded with "Streets & Trips" and my USB-powered GPS unit attached. As we head down the highway, I grab our current position (after a few tries - frankly, there should be a simple option in S&T for "Use My Current Location") and then type in "Notre Dame University." After a few moments, turn-by-turn directions and a map of the route we are supposed to take appears on-screen. Great! Off we go!

From Chicago Training Trip (Monday)

Fast-forward to South Bend, as most of the trip is uneventful except for the horrid amount of road construction going on.

There are signs for the University of Notre Dame all over the place as you get close to South Bend. Once you exit, you are greeted with various signs. None of these signs specifically say, "Visitor Parking." Instead, they say things like, "RV Parking" and "Game Day Parking." And those signs point AWAY from the ND campus to boot. That's okay, I've got my trusty EeePC showing us where to go, right?

From Chicago Training Trip (Monday)

Wrong. We follow the GPS past several campuses, including what appears to be the main entrance to ND. We keep on trucking and wind up in downtown South Bend, staring at some non-descript two-story building. There's not even a sign on it to let us know it has anything at all to do with Notre Dame.

We decide to go back and follow those "Game Day" signs and see where they lead. Naturally, they take you away from campus, around the big rock in the river, over the river and through the woods. Eventually, you end up on the BACKSIDE (and I use that word in all of its wondrous meanings here) of the ND campus. We finally pulled in to what appeared to be some kind of "Visitor Parking" because everywhere else required a permit. Frankly, finding our way around the streets and lots there was a pain in the butt. I wonder if other people have as much trouble as we did.

From Chicago Training Trip (Monday)

So, we toured the campus, took lots of pictures, and then made a fatal RIGHT turn in our adventures. At the ball fields, there was a LOT of construction going on. So, what could have been a short leisurely stroll down a road to the LEFT, we hung a right and ended up walking more than a mile out of our way (all tolled) in order to find our way back to the parking lot. Granted, it was a nice view of the outskirts of campus. But, it was hot and humid, and well, neither Doug or I are in any shape to walking around dodging oncoming cars and weary glances from passersby.

From Chicago Training Trip (Monday)

We get back into the car, and head for Mickey D's to grab a bite and a restroom break, then off to Chicago (well, technically Schaumberg). As we pull out of town, I look over and ask if we should stop for gas, seeing the gauge perched just above the "E." Doug assures me that we have plenty of gas to get back to the hotel, but that he'll stop once we do get back. So, we drive on.

As we come into the outskirts of Chi-town, Doug begins pressing on the gas pedal and wonders out loud about the quality of the manufacturing process of the vehicle. Since I try to keep this blog in the G/PG realm for the most part, I will let your own imagination fill in the various three- and four-letter words he used in describing the vehicle and the issues we were having. We are also in the far LEFT (i.e, FAST) lane...


At this point, I casually say, "I'm pretty sure we're out of gas..." He points to the dash and says, "No way, Dude, there's like half a tank left!" I tell him that what he had been viewing as the GAS GAUGE was actually the TEMPERATURE GAUGE and the gas indicator was the other one. Note the GAS indicator is on the RIGHT...

As we begin to slow down in the fast lane, traffic is screaming by us. We cannot find the stupid HAZARD indicator, so Doug puts on his signal and we attempt to cross multiple lanes of traffic with NO GAS!

Let's just say that in addition to the throng of vehicles whizzing by, I also saw my life whizzing by me. I am pretty sure that I closed my eyes at some point.

By the Grace of God alone, we managed to get ourselves onto an exit ramp shoulder, just around the curve from where everyone else was coming off. Yes, we were in a blind spot. And we were out of gas. Near Chicago. Without a clue.


Doug called Avis, who told him he was out of luck and that refueling was not part of the rental agreement. Once he expressed his immense dissatisfaction with their customer service, he opted to phone-a-friend. An ex-coworker/longtime friend of his said she was in a meeting but that she would come as soon as she could get away. So, we waited. We watched as cars, semis, buses, you name it, came screaming around the corner and rushing by. There was very little space between the driver's side of the car and the freeway exit.

After about five minutes or so, a trooper flicks on his lights and pulls in behind us! Once the coast was clear, the officer came to my side of the car and asked for Doug's license and asked if we had called in our situation. We assured him that we had not called it in, and he disappeared. A few moments later, he came back and let us know that HELP was on the way. It turns out, you can call *999 in the Chicago area and a big yellow truck will come help you, for a small fee.

Not too much longer after the officer had returned Doug's license, a big yellow truck pulled around the corner just after the officer sped away in his vehicle. Doug phoned to let his friend know we were being taken care of - at $5.00 per gallon for two gallons of gas.

From Chicago Training Trip (Monday)

Once all the paperwork was done and the gas was poured in, we thanked the truck driver and headed to the nearest gas station...

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*I thought I should note that the images of the dashboard above were obtained online from somewhere... Notice they evidently had trouble reading which was the FUEL side, too - they are nearly on empty!! Too funny!

Here's Your Sign...

After the Cubs/Indians game on Saturday, the three of us hopped in the Equinox and headed for the Vic theater. Not being from the area, we could have just as easily been looking for Michael Jordan’s house -if he even lives in chi, which I have no idea. We got directions from a local young man -perhaps 18 or so- but he seemed very confused as to where he was in relation to the Vic, so we discredited his advice and went with plan b. We asked the parking attendant. As you might have guessed, this yielded nothing more useful than a shrug and a tip that we might want to find a local law enforcement officer and ask for help. Yay.

Our phones were of little use, since none of us has GPS. We do have internet, though. We are able to find our way around and eventually end up in a parking garage that was built such that the only vehicles that could easily and safely navigate it would those produced by the cooper mini company. At one point, as we tried to go up into the garage, oncoming traffic had to back-up, maneuver their vehicles as far to their right as they could, and then we did a very tightly choreographed dance which let both vehicles -ours and theirs- squeeze past each other, with barely room for side mirrors not to touch.

We arrived very early (which seemed to be the theme of the week) so, we grabbed an order of mozz sticks and some cokes. We assured the waitress that after the show, we would be back for "real" food. (For the record, we did go back and had some killer pizza!)

Standing in front of the Vic were various tbs stations. That is, places where you get free Twix, have your picture taken with cardboard stand-ins, and you could make a mix of beats, scratches and laughs. The three of us had our picture taken, though I was the only one willing to act like a fool for a fun shot.


After a lot of coaxing, Will finally agreed to jump on the mix-master machine. The tbs photog snapped a lot of shots. I think will may become the poster-child for the laugh-traxx machine.

Once the line started moving, we were ushered in to find our seats. It is here that I would like to mention that all the tickets, yes ALL tickets, were general admission. We found a nice comfy padded elongated sitting place. Sure, some might call it a very long couch, but I am sure it some more sophisticated name. We sat right on the aisle. This was done for two reasons - 1)we had a great view of the stage, and 2)the show was being recorded. Where else is a handi-cam going to go but up the aisles? Exactly!


Remember the part about general admission? There was a section of seats that was roped off, reserved for tbs folks that had come in for the show. Several people came up to the person in charge of keeping the public out of there and asked her if they could sit there. I'll get to that in a minute. By far the most asked question was: can you tell me which section I’m in? Or, where do I sit? We helped the woman out by introducing several folks to the concept of 'general admission.' For those that don’t know, general admission means you come in and find a seat, then plant your tukus in it. :-) Of course, we had joked that the next person to ask was going to be told that they needed to go ask the security guard at the front for the general, and ask for general ad mission. Luckily for everyone involved, no one asked us after we decided that.

Now, back to the bonehead, er, patron that kept bugging the poor girl guarding the reserved seats. One guy came back every 3-5 minutes asking if he could get a seat in the reserved space. The girl said that seats would be open to general admission once the tbs folks had all arrived. This did not deter the doofus, er, gentleman, from trying to slip the girl a 20 dollar bill! Holy crap! He just tried to bribe his way into front-section seats! Now, these seats were right next to us. The real kicker? He already had front section seats on the other side of where we sat! What a jerk! And, to add insult to injury, he was wearing a shirt which read: "Stop your whining, B*** and get over it!" Of course, the word was spelled out. The three of us finally started reading his shirt out loud to him, but he never made the connection. Moron. Thankfully, it ended up being an all-TBS section.

The show itself was absolutely hilarious! I thought it was going to air next weekend on TBS, but that's not what this was being taped for. It was being taped for his own production company, which I can only assume means that a a comedy special or DVD is coming out of it! That would be cool!

The Father's Day trip home...

As I write this, I am en route from Chicago to Dallas. We woke early today, so after we dropped our Chevy Equinox off at the Avis rental return, we headed for the terminal at O’Hare. Looking like the lost tourists we were, we got into a rather long line in order to check our bags. As we waited, an airline representative informed us that we could get in the international line, since there were fewer people there. As it always seems to happen, by the time we got to this 'shorter' line, it was no longer the shorter line. So, like the good airport patrons we are, we waited our turn.
According to the weather channel, which seemed to be the favorite channel of one of our trio this trip, rain was coming in to the Chicago area. Given that the most recent rain there caused a 5-hour delay in flights, we thought it best to try and jump an earlier flight to Dallas. Since our true final destination is Texarkana, hopping the earlier flight meant two things: 1) we would get to Dallas at about the time our regular flight would have been taking off, and 2)we would now have about a 3-hour layover in Dallas because we would still have the same flight from Dallas to Texarkana. Yay.
As we waited for our names to be called, we got pushed further and further down the standby list. This was due in large part to the numerous American airlines personnel who were also on standby, and they get priority over a couple guys that just wanted to beat an incoming storm. Naturally, at this point I have no idea if taking the early flight was worth it or not. I digress. As the other people boarded, it looked like we'd have to stick around chi-town after all. But at the minute, the woman behind the desk called my name. I explained that there were three of us and that we would rather travel together if at all possible. A few clickity-clicks on the keyboard, and sure enough, three boarding passes soon came spitting out of the printer. Again, yay.
I have flown many times during my lifetime, and will be flying again in less than a week (to NYC!) but I do not recall ever willingly putting myself on standby in order to catch an early flight that ultimately has no bearing on my arrival time to my final destination. Basically, if the storm never comes/came to Chicago, I hopped an earlier plane so I could veg out in a different airport. In some parallel universe, I am sure it makes sense.

Welcome to Schaumberg

Even though we've been spending a lot of time in downtown Chicago, our training is actually being held in one of the suburbs: Schaumberg.

This is the building where the training is taking place. It's being conducted by Global Knowledge.

Our instructor was flown in from North Carolina and he is very sharp on SharePoint-related information. He is also one of three programmers Global Knowledge has, so he is assigned the .Net classes (including the SharePoint programming class)

And, I'm sure you know my picture-taking well enough by now to know I'll stop and take a picture of the local foliage when the opportunity presents itself:
There probably won't be pictures tonight, unless I grab the camera for our trip to Gino's Pizza. I think the plan for tonight is to visit the largest mall in the US (in retail space). Yeah, I know, the largest physical mall is The Mall of America, but it has coasters, and rides, etc. Supposedly, the one near here is the largest in actual space dedicated to stores. If we go, I'll be sure to post some pics...

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The training is going well, but by 4:15pm yesterday, we were wiped out. In fact, we are heading in early today to do the lab...

Made it to Chicago!

Well, we made it to Chicago on Monday, and of course, I broke out the camera as soon as I could. Here are a few pictures (click on the link below any picture to see all 160+ pics from Monday):

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)

From Chicago Training Trip (sunday)