home again home again
May. 31st, 2013 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishWhat I failed to mention last time is that on Thursday afternoon I picked up a cold of some kind from someone at the beach. uilos started developing symptoms a couple of days later. This meant I was facing WisCon in kind of a tired fog, which is not an ideal way to experience a convention. Not showing up until late on Friday and being very tired didn't help matters.
Still a good con, just not as sociable as I'd hoped it would be. Plenty of good panels, plenty of tasty Madison food, lunch with Jerry & family who we know from boardgaming. (Sadly, there wasn't quite enough time scheduled for a longish game on Monday morning, but we tried.)
Monday we arrived at the airport planning to board our 1PM flight to Minneapolis, where we had a three-hour layover before the flight home. Several people were milling around the desk; they'd been scheduled on the 9AM flight to Minneapolis, which was still on the tarmac with mechanical problems. We sympathized.
Our plane arrived around noon and disgorged passengers ... and then just sat there. Around 1:30 the Delta guy at the gate said it needed repairs, and they were waiting on a part to fly in from Detroit at 3:45, but the other flight ought to be ready to go by then. There was no way we'd make a 5 PM connection if we caught that flight, so we got ourselves rebooked onto the other flight, and went and waited on the comfier couches by its gate.
And waited. And waited. Eventually the Delta woman at that gate said they weren't sure when the plane was going to be ready to go, but they were flying another plane in from Minneapolis and we could get on that one. We waited in a long line of disgruntled passengers and got them to admit that no, there wasn't anything they could do short of flying us to Minneapolis and putting us up there, and getting us to Vancouver the next morning. For our trouble we also got $100 Delta ticket vouchers, and a couple of food vouchers.
Good thing I'd preemptively taken Tuesday off from work as well. We blew one of the food vouchers on ice cream, and waited, and watched our original plane take off full to bursting. Eventually the other plane arrived and we and the other six passengers boarded it. As the last ones on we had more or less free rein, so we commandeered a couple of the Extended Legroom seats. These feel positively luxurious compared to the normal airline standard of "how close can we make these seats anyway." Also, the flight attendant just kept handing out snacks, rather than stopping at the typical 'one tiny package of pretzels.' Empty flights are kinda weird.
Once in Minneapolis, we met up with Steph ('my good ex') and Ryan for post-dinner, which was just about worth all the hassle, and stayed in a perfectly acceptable hotel near the Mall Of America, which we did not visit. We then caught a morning flight from Minneapolis to Vancouver, where we got flagged by immigration control for further lecturing. Apparently they get cranky if you try to re-enter the country on a work permit that's set to expire in a few days without having begun the renewal process. I made appropriately contrite noises and said we were already planning on leaving and reentering on Friday (when the permit expires) to get it renewed, and that mollified them enough to let us back in.
Thankfully the requisite paperwork from work has arrived, so in another couple of hours we head down across the border to turn around and head back. Work permit processing ought to be a little easier this time since we're not going through at midnight, nor are we at the train station where they'll have to pick everyone's brains to figure out where they keep the forms and how to work the printer.
In other immigration news, the office at Ottawa has officially acknowledged receipt of our application for permanent residency. Now they sit on it for 10-11 months. Still, progress.
Also, if you're into that sort of thing, I'm selling off some of my games. Mostly board games, a few old PC games and RPGs.
uilos started developing symptoms a couple of days later. This meant I was facing WisCon in kind of a tired fog, which is not an ideal way to experience a convention. Not showing up until late on Friday and being very tired didn't help matters.Still a good con, just not as sociable as I'd hoped it would be. Plenty of good panels, plenty of tasty Madison food, lunch with Jerry & family who we know from boardgaming. (Sadly, there wasn't quite enough time scheduled for a longish game on Monday morning, but we tried.)
Monday we arrived at the airport planning to board our 1PM flight to Minneapolis, where we had a three-hour layover before the flight home. Several people were milling around the desk; they'd been scheduled on the 9AM flight to Minneapolis, which was still on the tarmac with mechanical problems. We sympathized.
Our plane arrived around noon and disgorged passengers ... and then just sat there. Around 1:30 the Delta guy at the gate said it needed repairs, and they were waiting on a part to fly in from Detroit at 3:45, but the other flight ought to be ready to go by then. There was no way we'd make a 5 PM connection if we caught that flight, so we got ourselves rebooked onto the other flight, and went and waited on the comfier couches by its gate.
And waited. And waited. Eventually the Delta woman at that gate said they weren't sure when the plane was going to be ready to go, but they were flying another plane in from Minneapolis and we could get on that one. We waited in a long line of disgruntled passengers and got them to admit that no, there wasn't anything they could do short of flying us to Minneapolis and putting us up there, and getting us to Vancouver the next morning. For our trouble we also got $100 Delta ticket vouchers, and a couple of food vouchers.
Good thing I'd preemptively taken Tuesday off from work as well. We blew one of the food vouchers on ice cream, and waited, and watched our original plane take off full to bursting. Eventually the other plane arrived and we and the other six passengers boarded it. As the last ones on we had more or less free rein, so we commandeered a couple of the Extended Legroom seats. These feel positively luxurious compared to the normal airline standard of "how close can we make these seats anyway." Also, the flight attendant just kept handing out snacks, rather than stopping at the typical 'one tiny package of pretzels.' Empty flights are kinda weird.
Once in Minneapolis, we met up with Steph ('my good ex') and Ryan for post-dinner, which was just about worth all the hassle, and stayed in a perfectly acceptable hotel near the Mall Of America, which we did not visit. We then caught a morning flight from Minneapolis to Vancouver, where we got flagged by immigration control for further lecturing. Apparently they get cranky if you try to re-enter the country on a work permit that's set to expire in a few days without having begun the renewal process. I made appropriately contrite noises and said we were already planning on leaving and reentering on Friday (when the permit expires) to get it renewed, and that mollified them enough to let us back in.
Thankfully the requisite paperwork from work has arrived, so in another couple of hours we head down across the border to turn around and head back. Work permit processing ought to be a little easier this time since we're not going through at midnight, nor are we at the train station where they'll have to pick everyone's brains to figure out where they keep the forms and how to work the printer.
In other immigration news, the office at Ottawa has officially acknowledged receipt of our application for permanent residency. Now they sit on it for 10-11 months. Still, progress.
Also, if you're into that sort of thing, I'm selling off some of my games. Mostly board games, a few old PC games and RPGs.