Woohoo, time for a big, fun-filled weekend.

On Friday, we got out of the office a little late (the usual wrapping up of work), dropped off the rental car, and headed over to the ticket counter.  Of course, our flight was delayed, but they said it was “negligible.”  Somehow, between the check-in counter and the gate, “neglible” turned into a 2 hour flight delay.  Say whaaaaaat, Continental?  And while we were collectively scowling at the departure screen, it changed to a 1 hour delay.  Uh, how long did we have to scowl at the screen before the flight was on time?

So we had time to eat lunch, then board the flight.  Of course, I appreciated how Continental split the original delay, because now we were delayed taking off and again as we circled around Newark Airport after that.  Somehow, we ended up only touching down in Newark 90 mins later than expected.  One of my coworkers and I shared his car service back to his place, and then I drove home from there.

Lakewood BlueClaws game at First Energy Park

As soon as I got home, it was time to get ready for some minor league baseball!  My wife’s company paid for tickets and dinner to see the Lakewood BlueClaws play the…. er…., you know, I have no idea who was playing, nor where we were exactly going.  I didn’t care, actually, because it was a Friday night.  I found out during the drive that we were heading to Lakewood NJ, which is down the shore halfway to Toms River.  Checking their website now, it was the Lake County Captains, so…… okay.

By the time we arrived at FirstEnergy Park , it was after 8pm, and they had stopped serving our free food.  Thankfully, my wife’s friends/coworkers saved us some plates.  Josh wasn’t all that interested in the game, but we were all surprised to learn that a nearby Toyota/Scion dealership was sponsoring fireworks, which was a welcome treat.

Do you know what I don’t get? When I’m home, I watch very little TV.  Maybe I don’t have a lot of time at home, maybe there’s not much on.  I’ve at the TV on at 2am while I was doing work, and it’s just crap.  However, when I’m on the road, I can be up super late watching all the interesting stuff on TV. 

I want to go to sleep, and there’s an interesting documentary on the Korean War.  Maybe a super-interesting CourtTV-type of mystery/crime re-creation.  Here in Canada, do you know what they have?  Space, a 24-hour sci-fi channel.  Last night, I watched two hours of Star Trek, and Aliens!  It’s a better sci-fi channel than Sci-Fi in the States (soon to be SyFy in July 2009.)

Has anyone seen one of these backscatter x-ray machines at the airports?  They just rolled it out to NY JFK airport last month, apparently.  Reminds me a bit of that scene in Total Recall, or True Lies (interestingly, both Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi movies) where the scanners at transportation hubs show the entire body.

Backscatter X-ray and millimeter-wave imaging technologies that give Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers the ability to see through passengers’ clothing and look for prohibited objects hidden next to their bodies are being used at an increasing number of U.S. airports.

Here’s another article from LiveScience, plus a sample picture.  Talk about revealing.

Backscatter x-ray image

Susan Hallowell, the director of the Transportation Security Administration’s security laboratory, allows her body to be X-rayed by the “backscatter” machine at the Transportation Security Administration in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Wednesday, June 25, 2003

In other travel news, according to concierge.com, here are 13 beach escapes that won’t bust the bank.  I’m adding these to my destination travel wish-list.