The Jerk in Seat 12F

Posted February 29, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Rants

I was aboard an Air Canada A319 enroute to a conference in Montreal at which I was to speak the following day. I was looking forward to the 5-hour flight from Vancouver, to put the finishing touches on my presentation as well as get some other work done.

After we reached cruising altitude and the seat belt sign had been extinguished, I waited about ten minutes before trying to grab my laptop case from under the seat in front of me. I’d been whacked in the head enough times before to know that those who recline their seats usually do so in the first couple of minutes after the light goes off.

Despite my caution - WHAM! - I got whacked upside the head anyway — and hard. It was almost like the guy sitting in front of me had specifically waited until I bent down to get my bag.

I responded with a loud “OW!” and gave his seat a shoulder check on my way up.

Really, how hard is it to turn your head and confirm that the person behind you is out of the way before you JERK your seat back?

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my dealings with ‘the Jerk in 12F’.

As if having his seat fully reclined wasn’t enough, he rocked and jerked his seat back throughout the flight by pushing against the bulkhead with his feet.

The effect on my end was unpleasant and precarious to say the least.

Behind a fully upright seat on the 319, my laptop can be open to an angle of 90 degrees. With the seat fully reclined, I lose about 15 degrees, forcing me to slouch in my seat in order to see the screen.

However, when the ‘jerking’ occured, the latch on the tray table threatened to catch and snap the laptop screen. In fact, the fellow in the aisle seat in my row told me how that had happened to his laptop and he therefore complimented my response to ‘the Jerk’.

So, what did I do?

Well, every time the Jerk jerked, I jerked back. I either pushed back against his seat, or pushed down HARD on my table.

Finally, after 4 hours of going back and forth, the Jerk in 12F stood up, turned around and said, “Do you have a problem with my seat being reclined?”

“Not at all! ” I assured him. “What I do have a problem with however, is that you have been pushing your feet against the bulkhead and jerking your seatback against my laptop. Each time you jerk, the laptop screen is at risk of catching and snapping, as happened to this gentleman on another flight“, gesturing towards the man in the aisle seat.

Please notice how I managed to get “you jerk” into that sentence without making it too personal. LOL.

He whined in reply, “Well, I’m allowed to recline my seat“.

To which I responded, “Of course you are, but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should“.

The Jerk then sat down, put his seat in the upright position and I managed to work in peace for a whole 30 minutes.

Technorati Tags: airplane, seat back, jerk, etiquette

Popularity: 78% [?]

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More about Sun Peaks Resort

Posted February 29, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Destinations

Sun Peaks Resort is the largest four-season resort in BC next to Whistler. The charming ski in / ski out alpine village is surrounded by three mountains on which to play - Tod, Sundance and Mt. Morrisey.

In winter, downhill enthusiasts can choose from 122 runs that span the three mountains, while cross-country skiiers and snowshoers have 28 kilometers of groomed and ungroomed trails. (Read my post about the cross country skiing.)

Weather conditions are typically sunny year-round and the runs are known for their light dry powder. Sun Peaks is known for its exceptional snow grooming and I can atest to the fact that the groomers worked all night. In fact, cross country runs that were already in almost perfect condition late on our first day were groomed again on the second day.

In addition to winter sports, Sun Peaks has become popular in recent years for its mountain biking park, hiking and golf course. We plan to head back in July to do some hiking amidst the alpine wildflowers.

There aren’t that many restaurants at the resort yet and it seems that we dined at the most notable, including Mantles at the Delta Sun Peaks Resort, Bottom’s Bar & Grill in the Sundance Lodge, Bella Italia and Baggs Sweets where we went both days for breakfast. The food all round was good (high praise from this food snob) and I was really surprised and delighted by the quality of the food at Bella Italia where we all got together for dinner on the second night… and our waiter was fabulous.

Accomodations at Sun Peaks include:

Clearwater Valley Resort & KOA Kampground
Heffley Inn
Fireside Lodge
Nancy Greene’s Cahilty Lodge
Best Western Glacier Park Lodge
Delta Sun Peaks Resort
Terracana Ranch Resort
Sun Peaks Lodge
Coast Sundance Lodge
Hillcrest Hotel A Coast Resort

We stayed at the Coast Sundance Lodge which despite showing its age was very comfortable, and the front desk staff were friendly and very helpful. I actually declared my love for one of the girls at the front desk, who returned my rather large silver and gold John Hardy ring to me from the lost and found box. A tip - if you book into this hotel, be sure to request a room away from Bottom’s Bar & Grill which is quite loud even during the day.

Although you may note on some web sites that there is a shuttle bus from Kelowna, B.C. to the resort at Sun Peaks, do book your flights to go into Kamloops, as the resort is only short 45-minute drive northeast from the airport at Kamloops.

Technorati Tags: Sun Peaks, ski, resort, dining, restaurants, Sundance, Delta

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Cross Country Skiing at Sun Peaks

Posted February 29, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Adventures

After leaving Penticton around 8AM, Ed and I got to Sun Peaks Resort just after 11. Not bad considering it’s winter in the mountains and I’d fretted over the possibility of bad winter driving conditions since we planned this trip with Carol and Andrew at Christmastime. Fortunately, other than a few miles of fog east of Merritt on Highway 5 (Coquihalla), the roads were basically bare, dry and beautiful. Even the drive up Tod Mountain Road from Heffley was completely bare, much to my relief!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat in the Mantles Bar over at the Delta, checking into our room at the Coast Sundance Resort and meeting up with the kids for a few minutes, Ed and I beat a hasty path over to the Activities Center at the Day Lodge to get our cross country ski passes. I’ve had only one episode with a chair lift and never planned another, so when the girl at the desk told me that we could take the chair lift up to the trails, my response was “there’s a chair lift involved?!!“. I was delighted to then learn that there were trails on the valley floor getting on and off the chair wasn’t a requirement.

Sun Peaks Resort boasts 28-km (17.4 mi) of perfectly groomed trackset trails and 12 km (7.5 mi) backcountry (ungroomed) trails, making it difficult to choose where we wanted to head on our first day out. We finally settled on the McGillivray Lake trail which is a dog-friendly green trail that goes out to McGillivray Lake and the warming hut there. We skiied directly out from the covered bridge at the Coast Sundance, passing the Morrisey Express lift, crossing 2 roads (a pain in the butt) and finally got onto a gentle uphill most-of-the-way out to the Lake.

Other than one skate skier, we saw no other cross country skiiers on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon in late February, which was completely amazing considering how beautiful the trails and snow were.

Instead of completing the loop, we turned back at the cabin and enjoyed a nice, quick and easy downhill tour back to the village. Our total route was approximately 12 kilometers, and but for the groin muscle that I sprained 10 minutes into our foray, it would have been a perfect ski.

Our friend Damon joined us the second day on which we tackled the steeper Great Gray trail outbound to the lake and skied down the McGillivray Lake Trail back to the village. Despite being an absolutely PERFECT day to ski with clear blue skies and above freezing temperatures, there were very few skiers on the trails. Awesome!

You can see more pictures from our Sun Peaks adventure and learn more about Sun Peaks resort.

Technorati Tags: Sun Peaks, ski, skiing, Kamloops, cross country, McGillivray

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Lunar Eclipse on February 20th, 2008

Posted February 19, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under News

Looks like we are in for a good show tomorrow evening if the weather co-operates and permits us a view of the total lunar eclipse. This entire eclipse will visible to those in the Western Hemisphere - primarily those of us in North and South America as well as folks in Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21) from 0301 Greenwich until 0351 GMT… or starting at 19:01 Pacific time and lasting for 51 minutes.

According to the Nasa site, the show should be an exciting one as “the Moon’s disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray”.

Ed will have his 10″ Celestron telescope set up in the backyard and we’ll invite the neighbours over for the event. I particularly am looking forward to seeing how well my new Ultra Flip video camera works in the dark… the really dark!

Technorati Tags: lunar eclipse, eclipse, eclipse of the moon, Celestron, telescope

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Add Weather Forecast to Your Google Calendar

Posted February 19, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Travel Tips

I just discovered the coolest add-on for Google Calendar users - the daily weather forecast.

In the graphic below, I’ve cursored over and clicked on the little weather graphic for February 21st, 2008, which pops up today’s weather and a 3-day forecast for my location, highlighting the day that I clicked on.

Just cursoring over the weather icon, I see “Forecast for Penticton, BC (-2 | 1)” which are the forecast highs and lows in degrees celsius.

I particularly like this as a time-saving feature, so I don’t have to specifically visit the Penticton forecast page on the Weather Network.

Hmmm… Chances are that I will continue to visit the Weather Network however… as I see that the weather forecasted by Google’s supplier is substantially different from that forecasted by the Weather Network, which I’ve always found to be quite reliable.

Technorati Tags: weather, Weather Network

Popularity: 43% [?]

Cross Country Skiing on Chute Lake

Posted February 19, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Adventures

Ed and I drove up to Chute Lake yesterday to do some cross country skiing. Chute Lake is approximately 20 miles north of Penticton via the Naramata Road which sits at an elevation of almost 4,000 feet above sea level. So, while the valley folk below were already running around in shorts on this balmy Sunday in February, there was still snow up at the Lake… and lots of it.

As such, we were looking forward to a nice ski along the KVR (old Kettle Valley Railway) / Trans Canada trails. Unfortunately, the snow machine drivers had chewed up every possible inch of trail - making the snow so uneven that it was rough going on skis - not to mention that it ate through the ski wax in no time flat.

So, rather than give up in frustration, and seeing that there were 5 guys ice fishing from their snow machines on the the lake, we figured that the ice would be safe enough for a couple of skiers. Shortly after venturing out, I confirmed that the ice was at least a foot thick, which I determined when I stuck my pole down one of the ice fishing holes.

Skiing the lake was perfect. Other than the ice fishermen, we were the only people out on the lake, and we could get far enough away that we couldn’t hear them at all. Perfect silence … aaahhh. Truly one of the joys that I live for. The other joy is seeing the sun reflect diamonds off unbroken snow, and but for a few snow machine trails, the snow was basically untouched. Aaaah… again.

After skiing for 2.5 hours, we went into the Chute Lake Resort for a cup of hot chocolate. The Lodge is a very rustic affair that we love to visit, especially to peruse the historic artifacts that are located throughout the building. Here’s a picture of the Chute Lake Lodge dining room’s interior, and another from the inside looking out in which you can see a number of antique irons on the window sill. If you ever get up that way, give Chloe, the fat old Labrador that inhabits the couch outside the Lodge entrance a pat from me. She’s a doll.

We’ll have more to tell you about Chute Lake this summer, when we do the Chute Lake bike shuttle. Drive up, bike down. A little easier than trying to ride all the way up and back down in a day — unless of course you’re a hard core rider.

To see Chute Lake’s location near Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park on a map, go to Google Maps . You may have to zoom out to see its location in relation to Penticton and Naramata.

Technorati Tags: Chute Lake, Okanagan, Penticton

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Hot Tub Maintenance

Posted February 18, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under At Home

Well, as you can see from the following video we learned another lesson about hot tub maintenance this weekend…

That was… use the Swirl Away (pipe cleaner) every time you drain the tub.

Technorati Tags: hot tub, clean, maintenance

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Earn Double Miles with the Miles by Discover® Card

Posted February 11, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Points & Rewards

Technorati Tags: air miles, credit card, rewards, points, airline, discover

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How Do YOU Cope with Terrible Travelers?

Posted February 11, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under Rants

Is it my imagination, or have air travelers become increasingly rude, inconsiderate and even obnoxious in recent years?

It seems that on every trip I take nowadays, there is someone who either just doesn’t understand basic passenger etiquette or worse, is so self-centered that they just don’t care if their behavior affects others in a negative way.

The ‘abusers’ are many and varied.

They include (but are not limited to) those who are tardy and unprepared for check-in and at security. Others ignore baggage allowance rules, while still others are apparently oblivious to annoucements at boarding gates and on board aircrat. Then there are those that I refer to as the sprawlers, the yellers and the smelly.

I’ve had it with all of them.

So, over the next few months, I plan to write a series of posts about a wide variety of terrible travelers that we have encountered over the years — with the hope that perhaps one or two of them can read and perhaps amend their awful ways.

So, are you frustrated and fed up with terrible travelers too?

If so, please feel free to contribute your story (or stories) via the comment section below. As this series may end up becoming a book (count on it) please leave us your real email address so that we may contact you if your story is chosen for inclusion.

Technorati Tags: travel, terrible traveler, rude people

Popularity: 41% [?]

Getting Ready to Quit Smoking

Posted February 9, 2008 by Rosalind Gardner · Filed Under At Home

I promised my niece and nephew that I would quit smoking before their first kid was born.

Well, that didn’t exactly happen.

Gavin was born on November 27th, 2007, about 2 weeks before his first due date of December 12th, 2007… so it’s his fault that I didn’t quit.

Excuses, excuses…

The kid is almost 2 months old, and we’re meeting up with Carol, Andrew and Gavin in Kamloops around the end of February, so there’s no more time for excuses.

I decided to try Champix (called Chantix in the States) which I heard a few people raving about when I was at the PPC Classroom Live conference in Las Vegas in early December. So, when I got home, I scheduled an appointment with the doc, got a prescription and set the date… February 4th.

Why wait so long, you may wonder? Well, one doesn’t want to even try quitting during a period that is forecast to be more stressful than normal - which definitely ruled out the Christmas holidays which we were spending with my mother. ‘Nuff said?

So, when you quit smoking with Champix, you set a quit date between 8 and 12 days after you start to take the drug. I started taking in on January 24th and wanted to milk out every last moment, so picked the 12th day, which was February 4th.

Despite desperately wanting to quit smoking, I didn’t feel entirely sure that I could quit smoking — even with the Champix.

I’d quit a few times before, once for as long as 2.5 years (with the help of Zyban), but every effort since I’d started smoking again full-time in September 2004 had been a serious bust. Since becoming allergic to Zyban, I was very concerned that there was nothing I could do to quit smoking, and doubted even the Champix.

Fortunately, I was wrong. From the first day that I started the Champix, my cravings disappeared completely. I smoked only because I wanted to — not because I was craving smokes. Knowing that much certainly boosted my confidence.

After 11 days on Champix, I had convinced myself that it would be EASY to quit smoking… which was exactly what I’d told myself when I quit before using Zyban. Hmmm.. so far, so good.

Now you’ll have to wait and see what happened on February 4th.

Technorati Tags: quit smoking, cigarettes, Champix, Chantix, Zyban

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