Do's and Don'ts for Dallas

Since I have now had the opportunity to visit the great city of Dallas three times and each trip has been a little different I decided I would compile a list of those things to do and not to do while in Dallas!! Keeping in mind this is only my opinion!

DO's

• Fly into Dallas-Love Field Airport (check in 10 minutes, security 10 minutes, wait for plane 10 minutes)


• Shop at the Galleria or outlet mall.


• Visit the JFK Memorial and Museum


• Take a trusty GPS


• Stay at the Embassy Suites on Northwest Highway or Hilton Garden Inn off I-35


• Eat at Pappadeaux's Seafood Kitchen


• Eat at Pappas Brother's Steak House


• Drive through Highland Park area of Dallas as it has some very beautiful homes.


• Pay someone $10 to change your flat for you!


• Do go to Sonics during their Happy Hour for a Cherry Limeade (as like Starbucks, there is one on every corner!)


• Eat dinner at Texas de Brazil

DON'Ts

• Fly into Dallas-Ft.Worth Airport - it has the tendency to close down after the smallest of rain storms


• Don't shop at the 24-hr Wal-mart with a clothes snob!


• Don't stand on the spot that JFK was shot as it is a major freeway on ramp!


• Don't rely on the cheap GPS you brought with you as it will most likely have you running around in circles!


• Don't stay at the Holiday Inn down the street from the airport


• Don't eat at Taco Cabana


• Don't eat at Pappas Bros BBQ.


• Never let the engineers from Associated Air pick the steakhouse to eat at as you will run up a very expensive food/bar bill.


• Don't drive around the neighborhoods of downtown as they are very scary!


• Never believe that AAA will show up in 60 minutes to fix a flat.


• Don't eat at Texas de Brazil if you have had a big lunch!

Footloose and Fancy Free!

Okay so maybe not those words exactly. This week marked my first solo business trip in my new role as Regional Sales Manager and all I can say is I want my partner back!!!

Sunday I flew out of John Wayne airport at an ungodly hour - a time when most people are still sleeping before they have to get up and go to church! My flights were both uneventful and I arrived at my destination (Dallas, Texas) without any hitches. I picked up my rental car, checked into my hotel and settled in. The hotel that I am staying at, is 1/2 mile from the airport and the main customer that I will be visiting while in Dallas. So, after unpacking my clothes and taking a bit of a cat nap (to overcome the exhaustion of being up so early) I proceed to head into the city for a bite to eat! Alas, this was not to be the case and upon arriving at my rental car I discovered I had a flat tire! What! Now how did that happen? Again, I remind you, that I had driven the car maybe a mile total. The 1/2 mile to the hotel and around it a couple of times before I parked! There was no way I could have caused this tire to go flat in 1.5 hours and only driving it for a mile. So I called Hertz and asked for Roadside Assistance, where I proceeded to tell the service lady my troubles. Nevermind, that I had to keep repeating myself and ask her to repeat herself because we seemed to have a bad connection or she was not connected to her headset properly. (Not sure which it was and it explains a lot further down) She managed to tell me that someone would be there within 60 minutes. She also mention that they usually arrive sooner than that but she has to quote 60 minutes. Also, during our conversation she informed me that Hertz considers a flat tire as damage and thus I would be responsible to pay for it! EXCUSE ME!! How can I be responsible for a flat tire when I had only driven the car a mile? I also told her that this car would not do for the week rental as I would be traveling out of the state and I would need a replacement. She said, "not a problem, I will call your rental location and request an exchange rental and while you are there you will need to file a incident report on your flat tire. " I re-iterated how could I be held responsible for a flat tire on the car when clearly there was something wrong with it prior to my picking it up in the first place....

So 60 minutes comes and goes...I receive a call from the driver telling me he is on the way and he needs to verify my location! (Nevermind, that I gave my location to the Hertz service lady 3 times) So I repeat the address of the hotel and where the car is parked. 15 minutes later I get a call from AAA dispatch telling me the driver is having a hard time finding me. By that time I had reached my boiling point and the gal at AAA got an ear full! The conversation went something like this: "How hard is it to get to the Holiday Inn down the street from the airport?"; " Airport? Which airport she asks me." "Dallas-Love Field, I am 1/2 mile away from the airport and the Hertz rental center. I have now given this information 5 times to you people....can someone please explain to me why this is so difficult?" " Well you haven't given me this information 5 times and if you don't stop yelling at me I won't send anyone!" " Oh yes you will because Hertz confirmed someone would be within in 60 minutes and your 15 minutes late!" Yet again, I reconfirmed my address and the location of the parked car!

I couldn't believe how hard it was to get a darn tire changed! For all of the time I had spent waiting I could have paid someone $10 to do it for me and drive it back to Hertz (which again is 1/2 mile away!) The driver finally arrived 15 minutes later and I was soon on my way to Hertz where I received the best customer service ever! I spoke with the manager about what had happened and he apologized profusely! He told me he never received any calls from Roadside Assistance about my problem and would have actually sent someone from his office to fix the flat instead! In the end, I received an exchange rental (upgraded) for 50% less that what I was originally going to pay and he made a note on my account about the flat tire not being my fault! I also received a $50 dollar voucher that can be used on my next rental with them! How cool is that! I am so glad things turned out the way they did, because I will be, honest I was prepared to fight dirty!

See, in the past when we have traveled, my partner took care of all these details! I simply had to show up to the airport with my luggage and we were good to go! Not to mention when I travel with my partner there is generally good conversations and much laughter between us so the trip goes faster! This time was much different and not for the better either! This time I actually had to plan, things like the trip budget, customer visits etc. Then I get the trip and budget (hotel, car and air fare) and cash advance approved. ( I also find that I talk to myself a lot!! Hee! Hee!)
I have a whole week of this... Good Lord help me now!

Life is a Rollercoaster

Okay not really, because I don't care for them much. However, I do firmly believe that we are definitely not in control of our life and every once in a while I get a gentle (sometimes hard) reminder of that fact. A few weeks ago my husband and I had a crisis arise. It was in fact, a big one! Matthew came home one night tell me a story about rumors floating around his office about a possible sell of his office. As some of you know, Matthew is an office administrator/receptionist for a corporate branch of Coldwell Banker. He has actually been working for them about 7 1/2 years the first 2 as an licensed agent the remaining time as office staff. Well, eventually the rumor proved to be true. An affiliate/franchisee had sent a proposal to the corporate offices about purchasing the Yorba Linda office. It apparently caught the right person's attention because next thing you know there were a series of meetings and phone calls about the purchase. In the end, the sell of the office fell threw; however, this didn't stop the powers that be from deciding to close the office all together. As you can imagine, Matthew and I waited on pins and needles ever so patiently (NOT!) to see what was to become of Matthew. Several of the agents began looking elsewhere, speculating and creating additional chaos that it did not help Matthew and I in our nerves. The President of Coldwell Banker, finally scheduled a meeting at Matthew's office to discuss with the staff and agents what had transpired over the previous week and what the final outcome was to be. In this case, the office was in fact still closing and the agents were being given the opportunity to transfer to the Tustin office along with Joe and his staff. Yeah! We were going to be okay, Matthew would still have a job and would transfer to the Tustin office. Actually this was good news for us in that it would be closer to our home and we could take advantage of carpooling a few days a week to save some money! The other good thing is that Matthew would be able to move forward with some of his real estate plans that were finally falling into place with a couple of the agents in the office. All in all we were pretty happy and knew that we had dodged a major bullet! We even celebrated at our friend's on the 4th (albeit a bit too much maybe...) but we were very content.



Fast forward to yesterday...



It would appear that my husband will actually not be transferring to Tustin as we believed and is in fact without a job as of the 18th of July! Apparently the individual at the Tustin office who holds the same position as Matthew has seniority and therefore is going to retain her job! Imagine my shock, surprise, hurt and confusion! What the heck just happened?? How could this happen? The President of Coldwell Banker firmly told the agents a couple of weeks before that Joe and his staff would be taken care of and would transfer to Tustin?? I don't believe there is ever a time that one can be prepared for this type of situation. And I will be honest that I was more prepared for it two weeks ago and I was yesterday! The HR gal was nice enough to mention to Matthew that he was eligible to apply for 3 openings in the corporate office but there was not a guarantee he would be hired! Again I say WHAT! I know that he will at least pursue them but at this stage we are not putting all of our eggs in one basket and will be looking at all options. He does have an interview for one of the openings on Friday morning and it is the best option of the 3 so we hope it will work out but won't know for sure at least for a few more days!


I will be honest, this is a very scary time for us. The prospect of not having the second income for awhile it a bit more daunting than I can handle right now! So your prayers are welcome! Job leads are also welcome! As is Money! Matthew's first reaction has been to sell everything we can on Craigslist. I told him to wait! It also doesn't help the fact that we just planned a Hawaiian trip that we can't cancel because we won't get our money back.

In the end, I know that this is totally in God's hands and he will provide; it is just hard to give up that control! But as I said we really aren't in control now are we!!

Handsfree and a Smartphone

This weekend I finally broke down and got a handsfree device. It was the most expensive device I have ever purchased! See the thing is on July 1st a new law comes into effect in California. All drivers must have a handsfree device in use for their cell phones while driving. Not a problem, I actually agree with the law, the problem is I also really like my phone and in order to go handsfree with a comfortable device actually means a new phone as well. I had tried several hands free devices in the past (wired, since my phone wasn't blue tooth) however I never found one that was comfortable and would work well with my phone. So I have put it off forever.

Well with the recent increase in my travels, I have been getting pressure from my boss about the need for a Blackberry. He believes that all the managers and sales/engineering people should have one. I am not opposed to the idea, just the execution. The thing is the company wants everyone to be under one carrier, with the same plan and same device. Unfortunately, the carrier is not my current cell phone provider. Thus I am stuck with either giving in or carry two phones and honestly who wants to do that? The problem is, not everyone is going to agree on one device, as I believe your cell phone is a personal choice and is selected with that in mind. The tool that is best for me, may not be best for someone else. I also don't like being told that having the phone is a perk only to be told in the same breath that I would be monitored for my personal use. I am sorry? Excuse me, but my cell phone IS my phone. It is the one I use the most. In fact, the only one in our house that uses the land line is me when I talk to my parents. We talk with everyone else on our cell phones.

Anyway so Thursday night, Matthew and I went to Sprint to look at phones. I spent an hour in the store looking at every Nextel and Smartphone they had. I narrowed it down to 3, but in the end wasn't 100% sure. After talking with a couple of people on Friday about their smartphones, Matthew and I went back to Sprint on Friday night. We decided on the Mogul. For two reasons: Matthew liked it and it was the best smartphone they had. (After playing with both the Treo and Blackberry neither of which I liked). In the end, we figured that if my company forces me to get a Blackberry as well as move to Verizon then Matthew can use the Mogul. The down-side to the Mogul, is no more direct-connect/walkie talkie feature. This was a hard feature to give up as this is what really drew Matthew and I to go with Nextel 9 years ago. However Nextel phones just don't have the smartphone features that I believe will be needed for our jobs. Guess we shall see!

I also got a Bluetooth headset and now look like I should be a crew member on Stargate or some other sci-fi show. At least I am not the only one!

A Victim of Facebook

Okay so this last week I fell victim to Facebook. Have you heard of it? If not, beware! If so, then you all can sympathize with me. I had actually been warned about Facebook by a couple of my friends a few months ago. In fact, it was my husband who actually found out about it while I was visiting my mom back March and made a pact with my friends not to tell me anything about it. That was until I saw one of those friends a few weeks later who told me the whole story, as well as about Facebook. No big deal, I was strong and I had already decided that I really wasn't interested in joining, seeing as I am really not into the "myspace thing" anyway. Also, as many of you can see, I have had a difficult time keeping up with my blog lately; thus didn't need another time consuming activity! So fast forward to a week ago, I received an email from a dear friend of mine announcing a new family album. I thought...cool...I can see pictures of the new baby boy they are fostering as well as new pictures of their daughter. The only catch...I had to join Facebook to see it!! What?? Here I had tried to stay away from it and like a bad penny it turned up again! So I signed up and within 5 days I have 30 new friends, 10 applications, and umpteen million gifts....bottom line, I'm addicted. Every night I have raced home to see what new friends looked me up or have confirmed me as a friend; read emails from old friends and played some fun games. It is just Craziness!! Pure craziness! I will say that it has been really fun re-connecting with some of my old college friends! (some I haven't seen in 12 years). So for those of you who haven't joined yet, beware! Enter at your own risk, on the other hand in small doses it may not be so addicting. Ultimately that will be up to you!!

A Trip to the Getty Villa

While Matthew's parents are here visiting for a long weekend, they just one request! They wanted to go to the Getty Museum. While the actual museum has changed quite a bit since the last time I was there (14 years) we had a really nice time! We went to what is now called the Getty Villa and is home to all of J. Paul Getty's Roman and Greek antiquities. Here are just a few of pictures I took while on our outing!

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A Southern Apology!

I know, I know, it has been weeks since I last blogged. I just seem to loose track of time. Actually the last two weeks I was traveling and let's face it, the last thing I want to do is be behind the computer screen! So I am sorry it has been so long and will do better to stay on top of this!

Our business trips were successful and we even got to do a little bit of sight-seeing and fun activities on both trips. The first trip was to Little Rock Arkansas and our second trip was to Savannah Georgia. The plan for the next few months will be to travel 2 out of the 4 weeks to visit our customers. Currently I am traveling with our other Regional Sales Manager and it has been very pleasant! We work well together and so far haven't killed each other in our travels, even if he is a horrible driver!!

While in Little Rock we did take in a single A Minor League baseball game. We watch the Little Rock Travelers play against the Springfield Cardinals. In fact it was one of the farm team for the Angels, which kind of made Matthew a bit jealous! (although I did bring him a shot glass and baseball hat with the team name and logo on them!!)

This was actually my second trip to Savannah but last time we were there our schedule was pretty tight and it didn't allow for any sight-seeing or eating at a really nice restaurant! However this time we had some extra time and that was nice. On our first night there we drove into downtown Savannah and ate dinner at the Shrimp Factory on the riverfront! Food was absolutely delicious and they are pretty well known for their peach daiquiri! (Yes I had one!) On our second day there, after our meeting was finished, we drove over to Hilton Head, SC and Tybee Island to look around. We ended up eating dinner at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House (Paula Dean's brother's place.) The food was fabulous and I even tried the house special chargrilled oysters. We sat outside on the back deck and found that the restaurant is home to about 6 cats. They hang out around the place and will even sit at your feet if you feed them. The weather was actually really nice and not what was predicted by the weatherman! I could definitely spend a lot more time in downtown Savannah the next time I am there! There is so much history and some great buildings and Victorian homes. So with that being said, enjoy the slideshow!

On the road again...

So this week I was officially launched into my new role as regional sales manager and am currently on my first trip for the year. Never mind that we found out last minute that we needed to be in Little Rock this week (like last Friday) but it never fails as we had an extra passenger. Yes, Murphy decided to grace us with his presence this week.

Our flight left beautiful Southern California at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. We were scheduled to have a brief visit, albeit 34 minutes, in Houston and then on to Little Rock. We left OC on time, but somewhere in the take-off the Houston terminal informed the pilots that our flight was rescheduled to land at 2:20 p.m. not 2:10 p.m. (now if you are paying attention this means 24 minutes to get to the next gate/flight!) So we finally land in Houston which is very cloudy, raining, etc. We landed early and arrived at 2:00 p.m. so now we are back up to 44 minute window. I can work with this. I knew we had to change terminals and this would be sufficient time to get to the connecting flight. Anyway during our actually landing there was this terrible screeching sound around the tires/brakes and about 100 yards from the gate our plane died. Yep, died! Here is where we got the first hint that things may not so well after all. We waited for 15 minutes on the tarmac for the electric carts to hook up to the plane and tow us the rest of the way in. The it took awhile to unload from the plane. I was off the plane first, so I headed to nearest counter to confirm our gate assignment and directions to the tram/shuttle to other terminals. By the time Mike was off the plane it was 2:24 p.m. (our connecting flight started boarding at 2:12 for a 2:47 departure). So we were off and running. Never mind that the drop-off point for the new terminal is the farthest place for the gate we needed, we hustled and got to the gate. The only problem, it was for a Guadalajara flight. Now we were in a pickle. We are looking all over for our gate. The screens are showing we are in the right place and the flight is on-time. So Mike, my co-worker steps up to the next gate over and asks the gentleman about our flight and was simply informed it had been cancelled. Hmmmm!!! (Why couldn't the lady that confirmed our gate assignment have shared this information??)

Long story short...Murphy was lonely and wanted to travel with us!!! We were delayed in Houston-Bush International Airport until 9:15 p.m. and didn't arrive in Little Rock until 10:30 p.m. only to discover that Mike's suitcase wasn't on our flight. Luckily it arrived on an earlier flight but never mind the poor customer service that we received from Continental who made us wait at the counter for 40 minutes before anyone came to help us. Some excuse about setting a plane up for flight tomorrow...who knows. We arrived at the Hotel and were checked in by 11:30 p.m. (I will pass over the fact that for the last 20 minutes of the flight,I was actually sick!)

Don't you just love traveling???

A "Cheesy" Night

Matthew and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary in style. We decided to do something completely different and go for fondue. I don’t how many of you have experienced fondue but let me tell you it is wonderful and a lot of fun! Our destination for the evening was a restaurant in the Brea area called “The Melting Pot”. Our reservations were for 6:30 p.m. and we arrived a little early. So to pass the time, Matthew and I walked up and down Birch Street Promenade. If it wasn’t for the fact that we actually had reservations, (I think Matthew would have headed straight into the Edwards Theater to see the advance premier of “Iron Man” that he has been talking about none stopped for weeks), never the less I managed to drag him away from the theater and we arrived at the restaurant. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by two lovely hostesses who wished us “Happy Anniversary”. We were escorted to our table where they had placed a white rose and card for us. How cool is that!

Onto the menu, the fondue experience is one that can be simply enjoyed if one can understand the menu. I was glad we had our waitress there to explain things. They have several options available to you but we eventually selected the “Big Night Out”. The Melting Pot believes the complete fondue experience should be experience in four-courses. They are very flexible in that you can pick any cheese course, salad course and dessert course and substitute them in place of what they have already selected. We began with the cheese course which they prepare for you at your table. The first course was our Caribbean Cheese Fondue which is Gouda and Gran Queso cheeses blended with garlic, sweet and spicy Peppadew peppers, topped off with scallions and a lime zest. They serve this course with refillable bowls of bread/ chips, fresh cut veggies and apples.


The second course is salad, Matthew stayed with the Caribbean theme and had the tropical salad and I chose a spinach salad.


The third course was the entrée which again is prepared for you at your table. They bring at the pot with a broth already in it and then add the seasonings depending on the cooking style you chose at the beginning. In our case we again stayed with the Caribbean theme and chose Mojo Style. For our entree we selected the Fondue Fusion which had: Lobster Tail, Filet Mignon Medallion, Jerk Seasoned Sirloin, Vanilla Rum Chicken, Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Zesty Pepper Shrimp, Butternut Squash Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables. You cook everything in the pot at your leisure and then dip into the 8 different sauces they bring. Everything was a tasted wonderful and we saved the Lobster for last.


The final course is the chocolate fondue. You may choose your own chocolate creation or one of the nine that they have created. We selected the flaming turtle with dark chocolate. It is served with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, rice krispy treats, brownie bites, pound cake bites and cheese cake bites. The whole thing was heavenly! The only bad thing is that it came to an end!


The evening was a lovely experience but I think Matthew and I would both say that the four course experience is simply too much. We were both so full by the end! Next time we go it will be just for the cheese fondue or chocolate fondue experience!

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"The Princess" vs "Just One of the Guys"

Lately, some of my female co-workers and I have been having a debate on how I am treated by the male co-workers in my office. The topic came up as they have been inquiring on how I am adjusting to my new office space. For those of you don't know I moved into a new office space back in February. Our sales and engineering depts had outgrown our current location thus the search for additional space began. We were lucky to find some office space in one of the neighboring buildings and we are renting out their second floor. I now share this new office space with 7 other men! So as you can imagine at times it is not the most pleasant of environments. Don't get me wrong, I like each them on an individual basis but collectively as a group they can be a bit much. And yes, we all have to share the same bathroom! Let me just say, that somedays I will make a special trip to the main building just to use the Women's restroom!

Anyway one of the lady's indicated that she would love to work in an office with just men because they would treat her like a princess and she assumed that was the same case with me. To which I replied. " Are kidding me, they don't treat me like a princess. In fact it is just the opposite. They treat me like I am "just one of the guys." Meaning that I am subject to their colorful language, off handed comments and sometimes crude sense of humor. Oh no there is definitely nothing "princess" about it.


I don't believe that any of the guys do intentionally (except for not putting down the toilet seat)and I don't feel uncomfortable in the environment. In fact most days I just let it roll. There are some advantages. When you work in an office full of women there tends to be more gossip and back-stabbing which I don't care for. You also have to be careful about who spend more time with because eventually someone's feelings will get hurt. I don't ever have to worry about that with the guys and that is refreshing! So in the end it I don't mind that I'm not the princess of the office and that they feel comfortable treating me as "one of the guys"! I also know that deep down they respect me for me and not just because I am a woman!