10:15am CDT - Midway Airport

So I’m sitting in Midway airport and I have about an hour and a half or so before my flight boards, so I thought I’d pull out the laptop and write up a blog.

It’s weird lately, I’ve been all about my website. I haven’t even been playing the computer games that usually take up my computer time. (MMPO Games are an addictive and time consuming leisure activity).

Lately, I’ve been coding and blogging and coding and researching and blogging and coding some more. I’ve got some cool stuff done, and am now desperately trying to learn the things I need to learn in order to do some even cooler stuff. Meanwhile Doug (DougMeade.com) has been upgrading his site as well, and as you all know today we both announced the upcoming addition of vlogs to our website primetime line up.

With all this new stuff going on on the website, it seems I cannot get enough of it. I mean, here I am writing a blog at an airport with no apparent way to actually post it to the site (sadly there are no wireless networks here and I’m not about to haul all my bags all over the place on the desperate off chance I can PAY to jack in somewhere).

Anyway, with all the stuff I’ve got to learn/do for “the grand vision” Doug and I have come up with for our websites, my web development/publication/production is bound to keep me very busy for the next few months.

I won’t suffer upon you a lengthy airport, I’ve-got-nothing-better-to-do, blog but I’ll pull out the laptop and make an update from the hotel before I post this to the site. I may update this on the plane as well, but honestly I doubt it (my personal laptop is freakin’ huge and would be a pain in the butt to me and anyone sitting next to me ….

ok … something just happened that I have to tell you about … Some guy just picked up the mic to address the airport and said “Yee-Ha! Attention in the airport … Southwest Airlines is now …” blah blah blah.

I’m sitting here making a face like “did he just say “yee ha”? when all the sudden he says it again in the middle of his sentence! “…all passengers should be in gate Yee-Ha B10″. Yee Ha!? WTF? Who says Yee Ha in Chicago? Who says it anywhere anymore?

Is gate Yee-Ha B10 different than the gate B10 I might otherwise go to? No longer looking at my computer but instead staring off into space with a look of holier-than-thou contempt … he says it two more times in short succession! “We thank you for flying Yee Ha! Southwest airline Yee Ha!”

Did this guy lose a bet or take a dare or otherwise pimp himself out for the amusement of others or is this part of a larger issue? Has Southwest airlines encouraged their airport personnel to include the words “YeeHa” to give their passengers a fun little taste of the Southwest, or has this lone employee taken upon himself to give the airlines announcements a Southwest flair? In any case … I am opposed to the use and encouragement of the use of “Yee-Ha”.

… where was I? Right, so I’ll post this once I get a connection (probably in the hotel). I’m sure by the time I get there my website will be overflowing with comments regarding my vlog teaser (Heaven help you all if you didn’t leave a comment *cough*Gina*cough*Todd*cough*.

12:50pm CDT/1:50pm EDT - 41,000 feet above Indianapolis en route to Tampa.

The Boeing 700 series aircraft I’m in seats 135 people I believe … I heard them say there are 52 passengers on this flight. So with an entire row to myself I did in fact have plenty of room to bring out the laptop once again for an in-flight update. I now get the opportunity to experience the one “con” that this laptop received when being reviewed … battery life. I’m down to about 20 minutes thanks to the brief period I was up and typing in the airport. Not a big deal to me … I’m more concerned with having it with me in the hotel than on the plane (and I can plug-in at the hotel).

Midway airport has come along way since I flew from there last (which was years ago). It’s much nicer than it once was. It’s got some nice shops and restaurants now. If you haven’t been there in a few years (I always fly out of ORD) give it another shot - fares are cheaper there sometmes. Of course there was a McDonalds not 30ft from my gate tempting me all morning. I had a McDonalds breakfast sandwich, which goes wholly against my current mission to eat healthy again, but I couldn’t help it. I did really well last week, and I expect to do well again this week, but airports are rough when you have nearly 2 hours to kill and I’ve always been a sucker for McDonalds breakfast. That doesn’t explain why I’m having the in flight snack (Ritz sticks and diet coke) but I’ll just have to make up for it later. I had one indulge day last week … looks like I’m having one this week too.

Anyway, we should touch down in the sunny state of Florida just after 3pm EDT. I’m not sure yet if we’ll be heading in to the office today or not - I’m betting that we will. But once I can get online I will rush to DavidMeade.com (as each of you do each and every day) and witness the amazing volume of comments you have no doubt left on the Vlog announcement.

About an hour and a half left of this flight, and 17 minutes left of battery life. Time to save, close, and get in a few good games of freecell.

10:23pm EDT - Tampa, FL.

Well, I’m in Florida and at the hotel. They’ve got a pretty fast wireless connection here thankfully. We went into the office for the few hours we had today and then went to a Borders bookstore. Stopped to grab some food, and then I watched one of the DVDs I puchased at Borders: The Incredibles. It’s a GREAT movie

Should be a full day of work stuff tomorrow, but should we be too wiped out to see the town, I also purchased The Bourne Identity and Supremacy which I can watch.

Wednesday, however, there is talk of festivities … we shall see.

I’ve a few hours left here before I HAVE to call it a night, so I think I’ll go grab a diet coke and catch up on my surfing.

Thanks for all the comments on the vlog announcemnet I think it’ll be alot of fun. I’ll talk more about it (and the reasons for the July 4th launch date) in a future blog