Nyanko's Basket

Today started with me finally being able to eat a cereal from the selection at the hotel I was staying at that wasn't too sweet. ^^;; I also got to see quite a bit more of Flagstaff, since I walked about 2 and a half miles to the Amtrak station where the shuttle pick-up point was. Brunch was courtesy of Late for the Train (which was about two blocks north of the train station in downtown Flagstaff). Incidentally, did I mention that that chain has an awesome name? :D

The trip back to Phoenix was much smoother than the trip to Flagstaff. XD For one thing, we were able to finally take I-17, and although there were some jams and an accident (involving a van that was transporting horses which got stuck, and the horses had to be moved), I was able to make it to Sky Harbor (the airport in Phoenix) in 3 hours.

It was also interesting because the other two passengers in the van were discussing something I at least knew a bit about - NAFTA, and how a new "open borders" policy with Mexico had taken effect on September 1st, resulting in trucks from Mexico being able to enter the US without having to undergo inspections/customs (according to one of the people in the conversation), and how the US was building a 12-lane highway that went directly to Canada (without any on/off ramps) for these trucks to use. There was also some talk of a North American Union similar to the EU, which would have a common currency across Canada, the US and Mexico as well as open borders and common security/trade policies. All of these things sound really fascinating and I really should get a subscription to the Economist or find out more about what's happening...

The other unexpectedly good stroke of luck was that the screening line at Terminal 4 went by very quickly unlike the one at Sea-Tac and I was able to make it to my flight without any danger of being offloaded or put on standby for a later flight, since it was full. The flight itself was uneventful and nothing happened while I was away - my apartment was still the same way it was when I got back.

I wonder what happened at work while I was gone, though. :P

On Sunday, I didn't do much in the early afternoon, because I had an incident with my dryer. No, it didn't eat my underwear laundry, but I was a klutz and forgot to actually push the start lever. ^^;;; I was wondering why the dryer was so quiet, too...

In the late afternoon, I went on a bus journey to the University of Washington to meet noself for dinner and pass him some requested things. It was an educational experience getting there, and in fact very much similar to the Brisbane bus system (especially with zones and free transfers), so I didn't have too many problems getting there. The fun started on the way back, though, when the bus I got on apparently did not go where I thought it was going. The driver was nice enough to drop me off at a bus-stop from where I could hopefully take another bus, even though I should've known that she probably wouldn't be able to know what other buses stopped where. I think I've been spoiled by bus drivers in Singapore suggesting what buses to change to...

I left UW at around 8:26 pm, and got home around 10:45 pm. Most of that delay was due to the infrequent bus schedules on Sundays (one bus every hour?!), as well as my getting drenched at the bus stop where I got off (intersection of Montlake Blvd going east and SR-520 east-bound on-ramp, if anyone wants to go there :P). I was worried that I'd either get home really late, or be sick, but fortunately neither of those happened. It was pretty odd being the second-last person to get off the bus, though, and watching everyone else alight and the bus gradually become emptier. I'm glad I didn't take my bicycle that night

( A YUOism about caets )

Today was the first day of employee orientation. I didn't actually do any work or meet my manager (or colleagues), but I'll get to meet them tomorrow afternoon. Instead, today (and what'll happen tomorrow morning) was about learning the corporate culture and various other things, and some explanation of the benefits, which really are quite impressive. ^^;

I had a quite enjoyable evening with itsacz doing grocery shopping at Safeway even though I forgot to take my shopping list and missed out buying bread, washing powder and some other things, which can wait followed by a surprisingly good dinner at a restaurant which he'd gone to before and at which he'd had a somewhat off-putting experience. I'd like to believe that it wasn't because both of us were together. :P