Travel woes

It was not my week for efficient travel, I can tell you that much!

I'm back from my journeys, and very, very jet lagged this morning. A quick recap:

Our Friday flight to Denver was cancelled right before boarding. That led to so much chaos, picking up our checked bag (Nick's ski boots), getting a hold of United, getting the car out of parking, driving to SFO in the middle of Friday afternoon traffic, and flying into Denver at 12:30 am, instead of the 7 pm expected. Of course, I called Avis & let them know about our delay & they "added a note to our file" & promised to hold our car for us. Spoiler, they overbooked by over 100 cars, so when we got to the Avis counter at 1 am, they had no cars. We were told we could rent a 12 passenger van. Folks.... that is an absolutely huge vehicle. M did an admirable job driving it to my friend's house. Luckily, we weren't staying in the city, and my friend let us borrow her car for game day & Boulder on Saturday.

Intermission to the traveling woes. We had an incredible (but short) trip with Nick in Boulder. So, so much fun meeting his friends, spoiling him a bit, taking everyone to lunch, attending a frat party (I smelled like beer afterward), getting him some skis for the winter, meeting the roommate, stocking them up on drinks & snacks (not beer, just sparkling waters & protein drinks). ;-) We also attended the big football game, and had an absolutely wonderful weekend. It more than made up for the fact that we got no sleep on Friday. Miss that kid. 

On Sunday, M, my BFF & I went for a walk while the teens slept in. Then we left reasonably early, got the skis, took Nick, another friend & a roommate for lunch. It's so fun chatting with teens. They are so innocent & lovely & energetic & such good kids. M & I returned the rental car, which, as you can guess, was a total fiasco on Sunday, because they had sold out of literally every car that weekend, and most people were returning on Sunday.

My flight to London was pretty uneventful. But, I landed, headed to my hotel & immediately had to get on calls & work until 7 pm. Do not recommend. My body doesn't like jet lag. The work week was okay. Nice to spend time with everyone, but always difficult to juggle the actual work with the meet & greets, social events, & the sessions we were attending.

On the flight from London to SFO, we were advised to get to the airport early due to the cyber threats, outages, etc. So, we left London at 12 pm, as another coworker & I both had flights leaving around 4 pm on Friday. Stopped by the lounge, had lunch at the airport, and then boarded the plane. An international flight boards about an hour early, so we were all on board ~3 pm. Pilot comes on at expected departure time to announce that there is a problem with a fire detection system, and they would need to have the mechanics fix it. Four+ hours of sitting on the tarmac on a very warm plane (they couldn't use the auxiliary power to keep the plane cool) & the crew timed out & the flight was cancelled. Now, i'm stuck at Heathrow on a Friday night, with no way to get home. 

Folks, you also have to exit the aircraft (people were freaking out, so this took longer than normal) & go through CUSTOMS again. I get why it's required, but I was so frustrated by that point.That took another 90 minutes. 

Because I was in business class, I was "lucky" in that I got a reservation at a hotel at the airport. Took another ~60 minutes to get from customs through the airport, multiple train rides & then standing in line at the hotel for my reservation. Got on the phone with United when I could finally check into my hotel room, as my phone was dead & I needed a charger. It was nearly 10 pm by that point. When I got a hold of the very nice individual at United, and he mentioned that the following day at 12:15 was the soonest available, and there would be only an economy middle seat, I'm embarrassed to admit that I cried. Not with him. I was really nice, did not have a melt down on this guy, booked the flight, & carried on. But friends, I have all of the hormones coursing through me right now (have to assume I'm going through/about to go through menopause), it was a VERY long work week, with 12-14 hour days, some challenging people conversations, and all I wanted to do was get home. I'm not a princess, but my company books business class, & it was very frustrating that for my $10k flight, I was stuck in a middle seat in economy for almost 14 hour yesterday. I try to drink a lot of water on flights, and get up a lot to go the bathroom & stretch my legs. As you can imagine, that is not super conducive to a middle seat in economy, vs a full bed recline in business class. My body is so, so jacked from that experience. One of my rules as I approach 50 & have lupus & feel all of the aches & pains is that I will only fly business class for work international flights. Luckily, that aligns with my company policy for folks at my level. If I'm expected to roll off of a full day of traveling & be productive... 

Anyway, I really needed the weekend to recover, but definitely going to have an abbreviated version of that now. M picked me up yesterday (landed around 5 pm, local time). I came home & put a few things away, then we sat outside & drank a glass of wine & chatted, I got to give Sam a hug before he went to work, and then I showered & went to bed. 

Today is going to be rough! But, the week ahead is going to be very difficult. I have some tricky people stuff, and a huge project due on 10/10 that I'm really struggling with figuring out how to approach. Anyway, on to today. Here's what I need to get done:

• Work out. Going to the 9:30 workout class. I missed my team triathlon yesterday, as I was stuck in London. Another thing that frustrated me. I haven't worked out (other than walking to & from the office) in a week, so it's going to be a rough go for me. 
• Laundry
• Finish unpacking
• Menu plan
• Schedule for the week
• Maybe carve out an hour to work on my 10/10 project. Emotionally, not sure I'll get to that.
• See if I can squeeze in a massage at the very functional place near me. My back is seriously messed up after yesterday's flight & super long day. 
• Call Nick
• Call a friend who left me a few messages when I was in London
• Provide a job reference for an old coworker

I suppose on the frugal front, I'm going to receive a lot of United credits & travel vouchers? So far, here's what's happened on that side. Also, I'm just going to say that I would ALWAYS prefer a smooth travel experience, but here's where I'm at so far:

• $150 travel voucher (from Denver flight cancellation)
• 10,000 United miles (Denver cancellation, the "reimbursement" for having to pay for parking in SFO, after our flight was changed to that & we had already paid for parking at San Jose. We had to provide a receipt for this).
• A $15 food voucher, which I put on my Starbucks card, to avoid waste.
• We had paid to change our flights to leave much earlier on Friday, as we wanted to avoid the airport scramble on Family Weekend, and get more time with Nick & avoid being tired ahead of my international travels. I asked United to refund us for that change, as we obviously left even later than our original flights. They agreed, so we received a total of $635.98 back in a credit card refund. 
• A $650 travel voucher (from London flight cancellation) 
• I'll be getting back a check (?) I think as part of the UK travel laws, for around $700
• I assume my company will get a refund for the drop in service from business class to economy middle class. But, not sure how that all works out. Given I'm the one who got to "enjoy" the great reduction in service, I'd love the reimbursement as a future flight credit, but I'm guessing that's not how that works.

On a positive note, I did get to do my first London "touristy" thing last week! We had a team event & got to go on the London Eye. It was very fun and nice to see the city from that view. It was also a super gorgeous evening, & there was champagne! ;-) 

I'm hoping that you have all had much better weeks than me!

Frugal Friday

 Another wild week on the books, with a one night trip to San Diego, soooo many early meetings, and leaving for Boulder today. Then London on Sunday. I've got this. Last international work trip of the year!

Saving on things we buy

• I met up with my original 9:30 am workout class group of women for dinner one night last week. I can no longer go to that class, but we try to meet up for the occasional coffee or weekend workout. One of the women is heading to the east coast for three months, so we got together to see her off. I once again had a credit card offer for the restaurant we went to. I forgot about it by the time we were there (saved several weeks earlier), but received a $5.72 cash back credit. 

Earning money

• Regular W2 income, so nothing too exciting. 

Avoiding spending

• Eh, not confident we've done really well at this, and in fact I ordered delivery the night I got home from San Diego. I did use a BOGO coupon, a free delivery offer & a $10 credit, but it still wasn't the same price as eating what we have at home. 

Eating what we have

• For dinner last Friday, M & I weren't hungry for much, and instead hung out on the patio by the pool enjoying a bottle of wine & the last of the summer sunshine. It was a gorgeous evening. For dinner, I baked up a tray of prepped Costco samosas, which were easy & delicious, & served that with a salad. 
• I seriously thought of picking up lunch on Monday, on my way back from my workout, as we didn't have any easy protein options to go with my salad. Instead, I came home & made a perfectly serviceable salad with almonds (protein), had a small amount of cheese & crackers & fresh berries. It was "free" (already paid for) & reduces the potential for food waste.
• I made a broccoli beef dish to use up some extra broccoli about to go bad.
• Similarly, I prepped the slow cooker on Monday am, putting everything in for chicken & dumplings, and just pressed "slow", which made it really easy to get dinner together. It also meant that i have both dinner leftovers, as well as lunch options available in the freezer. Two birds, one stone & all that. 
• I did manage to turn the delivery into two dinners and two lunches, so I'll take it. 

For others

• Can't think of anything this week.

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Fitness (or not) Monday

 It's been awhile since I've posted a fitness recap. That's a good sign that I've been: overwhelmed & stressed, and not focused on my fitness. The travel + jet lag have been a terrible combination. For me personally, getting enough sleep is the cornerstone to having enough energy to work out. Working out also gives me a lot of energy, so it's a really terrible spiral when I don't work out. I got a flu shot last week, which also led to me skipping yet another workout. 

Anyway, that's the quick catch up of why I'm behind on these posts. Last week was very "meh". Better than a few previous weeks, but way off the standard that I like, and how I was able to manage my schedule when I wasn't working. Go figure. ;-) 

Weight: I've gained 3 lbs in the last six weeks, and while I'm not 100% sure that's accurate (weight is often a bit higher on Mondays, thanks to more weekend splurges), I am not surprised to see that my weight is up a bit. It's disappointing, but definitely unsurprising, as I have not been working out at my regular rate, ate very different food that are not on my plan, and not nearly enough sleep. 

Calories: I'm estimating this at 1500/day, although honestly I didn't do a great job of tracking. I'm back on with my calorie tracking this week. 

Steps: in a similar story, my watch hasn't been charging well (can you tell that it's all of the things, this week?), so I'd say this is off by at least 10%, but I'd rather have some benchmark than none. My steps were 8,764/day, which is well off my rolling average & target of 12k/day. 

Workouts:

• Two 60 minute workout classes
• A 2 mile walk
• A 7 mile hike
• A 20 minute elliptical workout

On to this week! I have a one night trip to San Diego that's going to be a real challenge to squeeze a workout in/around, given my flight leaves at 6 am, and I have meetings all day + dinner with my boss. We shall see where I net out. I'm also heading to Boulder on Friday, and fly from Boulder/Denver to London on Sunday. 

My goals for the week:

• Increase steps back to my standard
• 6 workouts (2 runs + at least 2 workout classes)
• Drop the calories down a bit

What about you? How are you doing with your health & fitness goals? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's another busy week, so throwing together a menu plan always helps.

• Friday - M & I weren't very hungry, so I baked up a tray of the Costco prepped samosas, and we had that with a salad. 
• Saturday - Dinner at a friend's house
• Sunday - garlic noodles with beef and broccoli
• Monday - slow cooker chicken & dumplings (me) & M will have salmon (freezer), as he's not much of a soup fan. I know, I don't understand it either ;-) 
• Tuesday - leftover garlic noodles with beef & broccoli
• Wednesday - taco salads (prepped meat from the freezer)
• Thursday - any remaining leftovers
• Friday - we are flying to Boulder to see Nick for family weekend, so likely something at my friend's house, once we land. 

What about you? Any new recipes to share? Are you transitioning over to more fall recipes? What are your favorites? Would love any slow cooker favorites!

Saturday Happenings

 It's been a very full week! I had a late night call on Thursday with Tokyo + London (hence the need for the call until 11 pm) & then early starts (6 am) all week. My body was feeling the drag, especially with the post travel jet lag, getting a flu shot & having some minor responses to that, etc. 

I got so much done yesterday, and felt like I really turned the corner with a three month work project. HURRAH! I should have a draft to share with my boss next week, when I make a one night trip to San Diego to meet up with her. The only real downside is that might flight leaves at 6 am, so I can make it to my first meeting at 9:30. Wish me luck! I fly back the next day, so it's very much an in & out trip.

Things for today:

• A short run
• Menu plan 
• Grocery list
• M will go to Costco, and I'll go to the local store for a few smaller items we need (and, oat milk, as Costco doesn't carry it, AFAIK)
• Meet up with a friend for a hike & chat, as we haven't been able to catch up for months due to various schedule challenges
• Pick up a cake from the bakery
• Maybe get a pedicure? Will depend on timing. My toes are in rough shape from running
• Laundry
• M & I are having dinner at a friend's house

Time permitting, I would love to get another two hours done on my project, but not sure how realistic that is. We shall see how productive I am!

What about you? What are you up to today?

Frugal Friday

 It was a busy week, with all of the jet lag & a pile of work that seemed to just multiply over night. As is the trouble with work travel, my standard work (e.g. not the whole meeting each other, spending time understanding what the local team is up to) just piles up in my absence. So even though I'm absolutely working on trips, it's not the same type of work, which means unfortunately a lot to catch up on. 

Saving on things we buy

• I go through my credit card bonus reward offers each month, and save them to my card. I use the offers infrequently, and only when it's part of a regularly planned purchase, but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised when an offer comes through. This week I received three: a Southwest reward of $15.62 & a $6.92 reward from Seat Geek (where I allowed Nick to purchase football game tickets), and Google Play (a Spotify subscription, which was a gift to Nick) for $1.19. The money gets credited back to your account as a payment, so it works great. I also used a Southwest credit for part of a flight. The tickets are for my flight to Las Vegas. 
• I uploaded all of our receipts to Fetch, and one receipt (CVS, for my prescription) to iBotta. I rarely use iBotta for anything but CVS, but they have a recurring cash back offer that is super helpful. Saved $.22 on my prescription. 

Earning money

• My paycheck felt very hard-earned with the travel last week!

Avoiding spending 

• Promptly returned clothes that I purchased & didn't need for my work trip, which saved some money. To be clear, I kept the items I did need, so this was just the stuff that I wasn't going to use. 
• About half of the order I'd placed for work clothes didn't arrive on time, despite paying for expedited shipping. I used the customer chat function and asked for a partial refund. They credited me back for the entire amount of shipping, which was helpful. 

Eating what we have

• On the Uber ride back home from my flight, I'd sent a Door Dash lunch to myself at home. We arrived at the house at the same time. However, Sam hadn't answered the phone when I called to see if he wanted me to add anything to the order for him. He was sick, but also very hungry, so he ate 90% of the chicken salad I ordered. You might be asking how this relates to eating what we have, but the good news is that I was hungry enough not to care, so I ate microwave popcorn and an apple & called it a day. (The lunch was purchased using monthly credit card rewards for Door Dash, plus a gift card.)
• M made me a gorgeous breakfast using a lot of odds & ends in the fridge, when I woke up like a bear from hibernation on Saturday morning. Given how much I slept, that analogy felt right. The last of the bagels & eggs, some leftover melon & part of a pear. 
• Used two packages of Boursin cheese, well past their "best by" date. We ended up making this pasta/chicken dish, as Sam asked me to make enough for leftovers for him to eat when he got home late from work. The base of the recipe was okay, but it needs a couple of tweaks, IMO: add broccoli or another veggie at the very end, to steam. And, I think it needs a bit more spice. 

For others

• I used an Alaska gift card (purchased on sale at Costco at Christmas time) to buy my sister's flight to Las Vegas, as her birthday gift. 
• Two neighbors randomly reached out on Saturday to ask if we could pick up packages off of their porch & keep them in our garage until they are back in town, so we did that over the weekend. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Thursday things

 I'm going to channel my inner Kim (at Out My Window) & make a list today. Things are wild here, with work. I know the timing of this role could never have happened unless we had kids of independent ages. M is working in the city, with a long commute. I have lots of travel, super early mornings that would prevent me from any school drop offs, etc. And, just overall volume of work on both sides is intense.

Here's what I need to get done today:

• Meetings start at 6 am, which is always a treat ;-) 
• Get 3 items done off of my 90 day work plan
• Figure out why I can't add any Japanese colleagues to expense report. This is blocking me from getting it submitted.
• Sort out schedule for next week, including impromptu overnight trip to San Diego, for work.
• Talk to Sam about: his schedule for the upcoming weeks, get access to college billing, and make a final decision about family weekend & if he can go
• Workout class. I felt terrible yesterday after my flu shot, so didn't work out. Not getting in consistent cardio leaves me feeling like a slug, so it's a must do today.
• Talk to the accountant about my IRS "fun"
• I've hired a cleaning service & they come every other week. Today is the day. Juggle rooms, so I can stay on calls & stay out of their way. This is money well spent for this season of my life. 
• Change flights for next weekend, to arrive earlier. 

If I get all of that done, I will be incredibly thrilled. 

September Goals

 Definitely late to the party for September, but as with many things, better late than never!

Family:

• Finish 401K max
• Check in on 529 contributions & max
• Meal plan, & use up 3 freezer/pantry items

Family:

• Enjoy Family Weekend with Nick
• Start cleaning out the closet of "things" leftover when Nick moved out
• Help Sam with the start of fall classes
• One date night with M

Fitness:

• Lose 2 lbs
• Get back to regular fitness checkins
• 15 & 15 (strength training, no S days)
• Half marathon training plan
• Stay on track on trips (Boulder + London)
• Average 12,000 steps/day

Personal:

• Get together with friends x2
• Finish planning November concert trip
• Say yes to adventure & trying new things
• Continue to explore work/life balance
• Declutter 50 items
• Work on planning travel & budgets

What about you? What's on your goal list for September?

Another haphazard menu plan

 Things were again a bit nuts around our house, and I have zero clue what M & Sam ate while I was gone. ;-) I'm back now, and trying to sort life back out. I'll start with a menu plan, as that always helps.

• Friday - I wasn't in the mood for dinner (body clock was way off), so sat with the boys while they had a salad, grilled chicken (freezer) for M & taquitos (freezer) for Sam
• Saturday - Philly cheese steaks
• Sunday - chicken fajitas (using the rest of the peppers from the Philly cheese steak recipe
• Monday - leftover cheese steak & peppers on salads
• Tuesday - chicken with Boursin cheese (have some to use up), so trying this recipe
• Wednesday - leftover chicken fajitas
• Thursday - leftover chicken with Boursin cheese
• Friday - remaining leftovers, or wings & pot stickers

What about you? What's on your menu this week? Any recent recipes to share? 

Saturday Happenings

 I'm back & slept for close to 12 hours yesterday. I could have slept longer, but my back protested. I'm feeling very groggy this morning!

It was a lot of transportation for a trip, and I'm still bitter that I had to fly into Narita (the airport much further from the city) vs Haneda. It had probably been 10 years since I flew into Narita, and I was very much reminded of why, as the logistics of getting to/from the airport are terrible. I'm not up for the train after such a long journey, with my bags. When I landed, after a delayed flight, the next available bus ride was almost two hours wait. Followed by a two hour bus ride. :-( I will protest mightily if my company requires it again. 

The weather in Tokyo was extremely hot & humid, which being a west coast girl, I'm not used to nor a fan of. Then, a typhoon was expected to hit on Friday. I don't know if it actually qualified as a typhoon, but it was an absolute insane amount of rain & wind. I'm grateful my flight left, but it was also delayed. 

It was good to spend time with various team members, and the hotel I stayed at was perfectly acceptable, but the location of this office was not as convenient to the hotel vs previous trips. Given the weather, that was a hassle. I also got to meet my nephew for ramen & a beer one night, as he happened to be in Tokyo visiting a friend. It was fantastic to get to see him & we successfully navigated the train to go a few stops away. I do not miss the Tokyo weather in the summer.

I'm back for two weeks, and then we head to Denver for Nick's family weekend. I will leave Denver & head to London for my last work trip of 2025. HURRAH. 

When I woke up this morning, I hadn't eaten in 18 hours, so M made me a lovely breakfast while I inhaled two lattes (double my standard amount!) 

Things I need to do today:

• Work out
• Sign up for workout classes this week
• Work on my schedule & plan for the week
• Sort out Las Vegas schedule with friends
• I bought a bunch of clothes for the trip, not knowing exactly what I would need. I can now return almost everything I bought online, and a few things I bought in person. I ended up with a very good work capsule wardrobe, perfect for one week trips. Unfortunately, I was in London recently enough that my manager (a bit of a clothing person) is likely to remember my outfits as the same. ;-) May have to add in something different this time. 
• Laundry
• Finish unpacking
• Catch up on bills & the budget
• Start expense report
• Pick up my prescription

What about you? What are you up to today?