Jules

That is really, really cool, Jared. Congrats, man.

Pulled an all-nighter (couldn't sleep during the flight) Monday night, slept awful on Tuesday, worked 21 hours in last 36. I'm gonna be sleeping early tonight.

Grace eventually got in at 5.15PM (scheduled arrival was 8.45AM, mind you) and with her bags, nonetheless. Just glad we made it out to Princeton after dinner in Philadelphia and she only missed one day of practice. It's cold here too, but not Midwest cold right now.

News from Delta! Her flight arrives in 45 minutes in Philly. Only took her longer than flying transatlantic, but hey... :rolleyes:

Huge scandal in The Netherlands. Soccer team Vitesse Arnhem are bought by a Russian group of investors related to Chelsea's ownership, they have been really good since through investment, and wanted to play some exhibition games in the United Arab Emirates. Now, Vitesse have Dan Mori, an Israelian player in the squad, and the team had to leave him in The Netherlands... because the UAE doesn't recognize Israel as a state and thus Mori has no "legal passport". First everyone was furious with Vitesse, they have since stated they were unaware until the ticket was refused last minute and after long discussions they are filing an official complaint with the FIFA. Obviously FIFA will do jack shit about this, because they are political wimps and butt kissers for these rich sheikhs, but imagine Israel makes it to the World Cup and neighbouring state Qatar pulls a similar track? Or their flight is diverted? Or it's sponsored by Emirates? What a mess, but good on Vitesse for filing a complaint and not bowing to the money flow behind the event.

Welp. My 7AM flight with US Airways from Detroit to Philly went without an issue, Grace on the other hand - who was supposed leave at 7.30AM with Delta - is apparently still in Detroit, but her phone has died, Delta has inadvertently kicked her flight out of the tracker by noon (despite Grace texting me at 3PM the flight is still scheduled to leave at some point) and I am basically in the dark. At least I'm in Philly. At a friend's place, with Grace's car and a spare bed if need be. Still... fuckin' Delta. Fuck.

Detroit airport is pretty much shut down. I've been rescheduled twice, everything has been cancelled afterwards again. I am basically sitting around waiting and waiting for my next option, which will certainly be tomorrow or even later. Grace is also re-scheduled for tomorrow (she's flying different airline) and... well, fucking annoying. Fortunately still at the house, so guess no hotel necessary. And I can watch the madly cold Packers game. :chug:

I'm increasingly worried I won't fly at all tomorrow. Grace might still fly, so that would suck. Other news: we went clay pigeon shooting in the field here. It was fucking amazing to shoot a pump action 20-gauge and a heavy 12 gauge and absolute nail long distance shots after some practice. I felt like John Marston out there in the snow. :D

I still can't believe it, but when I arrived in Michigan last night... in my stockings I found tickets to the Winter Classic. Everyone was laughing out loud when the saw the immediate surprise and shock on my face. All the hints about "pack to dress especially warm" suddenly made complete sense as well. Her dad is a Michigan alum, so they love the Big House and knew I'd be over the moon to go. This is going to be so awesome.

I've been on a US Airways flight that was re-routed to Boston instead of Philadelphia, including listed as such on their website due to "inclement weather", but it was on a perfectly sunny day, we never diverted and landed well on time in Philadelphia. We didn't realize something had been off all day about our flight information until we had reached our final stop in North Carolina, where our friends were stunned to actually see us exit the plane after frantically trying to contact us about our new time of arrival.

I'm flying to Philadelphia, but immediately connecting to Detroit later in the afternoon. That meant I had some options, because Brussels, D?sseldorf and Amsterdam are all viable choices to depart from and they offer quite a few carriers. Usually I pick the best one, now I settled for the budget option and I am already regretting that decision, because I know I'll be peeved by at least a dozen things flying US Airways. Last time wasn't bad, but first two experiences were awful. And yeah, an issue is US carriers. They seldom reach the same standard as other airlines, especially US and American. I've had no issues about the flights themselves with Delta or United (Continental, couple years back, was amazing) and the lost luggage with Delta turned out to be a mistake at JFK luggage handling, not their fault.

I'm jealous. I've had to re-pack everything because my hand luggage had space, but my big suitcase was 2lbs over with Delta. I've once had my luggage not even flown in on the same day with US Airways, because it was too windy and the planes had to be low weight. And Delta once lost my luggage, and lost Grace's on a separate occasion, and didn't find it back until a week later. Nothing was missing though, so that's okay-ish. I prefer to fly different airlines than US or Delta, but sometimes it's all I can pick from Brussels, so oh well. Just sit out the ride and think of the destination.

Because US Airways is known for being picky on weight, I've just went through the lovely puzzle of fitting sufficient winter clothes, regular clothes and all my Christmas gifts for Grace and her family in a single suitcase and under the weight of 50lbs. Don't ask me how I did it, but I fucking did it. Okay, some clothing is in my hand luggage now.

I haven't changed a lot lately - or well, I don't think so -- but I changed a ton 21-24.

Not everybody has the opportunity to try out living together for more than a few weeks and they still feel the desire to get married. You might be on the something here. ;)

It's a Christmas miracle... I'm completely done shopping, including groceries for the dinner, at least a day before Christmas. Oh, and flying to the US in just five days for a 16 day trip in Michigan and Jersey. :cool:

I knew the week before Christmas would be insanity at work, but starting your work day at 6.30AM and leaving at 10PM is pretty damn crazy. Drove 500 miles to countless customers who all ordered more than usual during the day as well. Great for business, of course, and good for everybody's pockets too, but knowing that in six hours my alarm will ring for another one of these days... yikes.

Two great matchups, and some teams get a walk in the park. Too bad Arsenal and Bayern run into each other so early.

Fortuna had lost three straight and gave away a 2-0 lead late, with the equalizer coming in the 92nd minute... but they scored the last second game winner themselves in the 95th minute. Wraps up a week of great news for the club quite nicely.

The club. Club didn't own stadium now either, but paid a rental fee per event and collected the revenue. Now there's simply a new owner of the stadium and they don't charge rent, because they can use Fortuna and vice versa to grow their foothold in the region. They are also looking to bring together Fortuna with other teams in the county, including a hockey team and a handball team, so they can share sponsors and promote themselves to investors as an "omni sports group." Kind of how advertising with MSG is for multiple sports, they want to do that for Fortuna's stadium and the next-door facilities. I feel like it's a really strong plan and this sponsor is far more reasonable and pro-club as the guy who had it for the last decade or so. Usually I'm pretty worried and weary about these kinds of moves, but this one makes sense and the people I know within the club are very confident.

In one simple deal, my beloved Fortuna Sittard has wiped away 13 million euros in debt and they are finally out of financial danger for the foreseaable future. Their top sponsor is an investment company in sports campuses and they own the one next door to the stadium. Now they've bought the stadium through Fortuna and shares, wiping away the debt with the current external owner in one single deal and telling the club they will pay for minor renovations, a new pitch (maybe natural to artificial grass) and at no rental cost ever for the club. This opens up 1/8th of the annual budget to pay off the last bits of debts with other and maybe bolster the squad with one or two players as well. I am over the moon with this deal. It's just such great news.

:lol: I can't imagine Canadians trampling each other over a dollar or two.

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in The Netherlands, so when I was in Wisconsin this girl from class invited me over for Thanksgiving with her and her family and three years later we're getting married. ;)

:clap:

A meet-up at the Copacabana. Not bad. :cool: