The Joys of Work Travel

I was supposed to fly into Birmingham, Alabama tonight but due to flight delays, I missed a connecting flight so I'm spending the night in Memphis, TN (ah, takes me back to the ivory-bill search) and will fly out tomorrow morning. The airport has put me up in the lovely Holiday Inn Select (which I hightly recommend if you are going to be staying Memphis--fantastic service). My favorite part of this is that since I'm in the south, I will get my favorite dish--fried green tomatoes for dinner--on the airport's dollar! A great silver lining on a bummer of a travel day.

I just ordered a martini:

Whoa, doggies, there's a lot going on there. Lemon zest, a twist of lime AND an olive. The south, they aim to please!

Boy, I landed a sweet gig today! In my never ending quest to find ways to get paid to go bird watching, I just signed on to help Minnesota Audubon compile maps and information into two separate books: one birding guide for the Mississippi River in Minnesota and one birding guide for the Minnesota River...in Minnesota. I'm not writing them from scratch, I'm taking information that's already out there and putting it into an easy to read format and adding some info here and there. The idea is that the guides will be sold and the money from the guide sales will pay for future reprintings for Audubon. The whole project is being funded by the LCMR.

Of course, I will have to go out and research and make sure all the directions are correct and see what birds are there to make sure the guides are accurate. I always said that Eagle Optics was the best job ever, but this one is going to give that job a run for the money for the number one slot of best jobs I have ever had (but really after having worked at a Showbiz Pizza Place--now known as Chuck E. Cheese, any job would be the best job ever).

Sometime, if I can find a tactful way, I should tell you guys about when I worked for Pfizer in the "E.D." Department (E.D. as in those odd little Bob Dole commercials a few years ago). It was right before Viagra came out, so Pfizer was trying to find ways of using the old technology for E.D. and apply it to urinary and fecal incontinence. It was the only time I found that my seven years of taking French classes ever came in handy.

Hm, I think that martini is kicking in and I should stop blogging.