6 June 2010 - Failed Departure

Well, this week, I was supposed to be in Europe. On Tuesday, I was actually inside a plane, sitting on the runway with the engines running on my way to Paris. The plane never took off though, and after about 15 minutes, the pilot announced that the plane had a failed hydraulic pump and we were going to need to return to the gate. Long story short, four hours later, I was in a taxi (on Delta's tab) on my way back home to Washington. The next day, Joanne took me back to the airport to catch a direct flight to Paris. This time, we didn't even get inside the plane before another hydraulic pump failed (different aircraft from Tuesday). Four hours later, Delta paid for another taxi to take me back home. I decided after two delays in two days, I just wasn't meant to be in Europe, so I canceled my trip.

My reason for going was to meet with representatives of Rapid-I, a German software company that makes a data mining software package that will be used in a textbook I'm currently working on. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make much progress without this meeting with them, but I'm still hopeful I can get things moving soon.

One bright spot that came from not being out of town was that I got to be here for the Father's picnic at Madeline's school. She had been a good sport when we told her I wouldn't be able to go, but she was very excited when it turned out I could go. She made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.And we played on the slide...
And on the monkey bars too.On Saturday, we had a big soccer tournament for all three girls. It rained very hard early on, so the kids were a mess. I didn't get pictures of all the girls, but here's a shot of Madeline with her medal.The girls all did well, Jessica's team even made it to the championship game, eventually losing 3-2, and they all had fun, which is the most important part. We're kind of glad to have our Saturdays back now for a little while.