November in Shanghai, Part I: First Class Travel

In case you were wondering, I was away in Shanghai for most of November, for a short-term business trip. This time, I'm went all by my lonesome, as Cherry and Fifi stayed at home. It's been busy, but I've still had a chance to do some new stuff.

Shanghai Renaissance Yangtze, as viewed from New Town Central Park

For starters, this time around, I flew first class! At first, I didn't think first class was a big deal, especially in my domestic leg from Orlando to Detroit, which was in a 757. There were some perks - I got to use the Delta Club Lounge at Orlando and Detroit instead of waiting in the normal crowded waiting areas, but more importantly, flying first class grants you the benefit of being able to check 75 pounds per checked bag instead of the usual 50. This came in handy because my "Grantis Mantis Scale" had estimated that my luggage was around 50 pounds, but it turns out that it was off by about two pounds (not bad, if you think about the fact that this is based entirely on muscle memory). But the first class cabin of Delta's 757s are pretty much just bigger seats with slightly more leg room.

On the plus side, I did get to chat with a real airline pilot for this leg of the flight. I got a lot of insight into what kinds of things pilots like to see in their cockpits and the types of navigation aids and other stuff about the aviation industry in general.

However, it was the next leg of my trip where first class really paid off much more. This leg - the 14-hour leg - was in one of the finest ships flying today: Boeing's 777. The first class cabin of Delta's 777 fleet has been equipped with individual pods for each passenger - just four two a row in the two aisle aircraft. Each pod has the ability to adjust in various positions from seated take-off and landing mode all the way to full recline for sleeping and everything in between. The leg rest, lumbar, thigh support, upper back, and headrest are all adjustable, and the seat itself is spacious enough that a normal sized adult should be able to lie down without hitting any of the plastic sides, making sleep that much more comfortable! And of course, each pod is fashioned with one of the better personal in-flight entertainment systems I've seen. It provides access to over 100 Hollywood and international films, numerous TV shows, some interactive games, music, and more!

The back of the pod

Pod controls

Leg room

Entertainment!

Last but not least, the first class cabin also featured slightly better dining options. It's still airline food, but it did seem to taste a little better, although not as good as it looked, admittedly.

That's all for this episode! Stay tuned for Part II: Memoirs of Weekend One!

Funny Chinese Time Travel Commercial

YouTube Copout today!

Once in a Lifetime!

ATTENTION!

Today will be likely the only time in most of our lives when we can experience 11:11:11 on 11/11/11!!!1one!

I also learned in the newspaper that this date (November 11th) has taken on some special meaning in modern China - apparently it is "Singles Day", sort of a Valentine's Day for singles. Supposedly it is hard to book a restaurant or go Karaoke on this day because of all the young (and young at heart) single people going out to party!

It so happens that today is also Veterans Day in the U.S., so here's a Grant's Pad shout out to those who have served for our country!

You may now go back to your normally scheduled programming.

Fifi's First-ish Halloween

Halloween is an interesting holiday. It is always a big deal when you are a young child, say, between the ages of 4-10. Then, by the time your early teenage years come around, it's not cool anymore to dress up like a monster or a pirate and go house-to-house asking for candy. Several years later, especially in college, it became a wonderful opportunity to party, and in the many cases, a convenient excuse for women to dress more scantily in public than would be acceptable virtually any other day of the year!

But this Halloween would not be one of those. Nay, it was Fifi's first foray into Trick-Or-Treating! Technically, Halloween 2011 is actually Fifi's second Halloween, but, seeing as she was just 10 days old last year, she did not dress up or go trick-or-treating.

Mommy made this awesome costume with about $2.30 cents worth of material and about four hours of needle-and-thread work the night before Halloween:

This same costume probably could retail for around $18 at the Halloween store!

Then, on Halloween Day, after I got home from work, Fifi helped me carve our pumpkin!

I feel kind of like Hannibal Lecter...

Yay! Fun stuff!

Pumpkin head!

After completing our pumpkin, Fifi got suited up:

Then, she picked up a Kit Kat bar from our candy bin to warm up:

We loaded her up in her wagon, decked out with a bunch of junk mail for her entertainment:

Still chomping away at that Kit Kat bar - she eventually started to get through the plastic!

And we headed on out! Some of the cool sites and costumes we saw:

Interesting carvings

Captain Jack and a stroller-turned pirate ship!

There was a heck of a lot of kids trick-or-treating that night. I had no idea our neighborhood had that many kids. We ran out of candy at our house, twice! The kids were so voracious that they even took the bin!

And of course, Fifi got in on some of the trick-or-treat action:

First!

A passerby saw Fifi at this house and was so taken by her cuteness that she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, is she real?!?"

We stayed out for about an hour, making our way around about half of the neighborhood, before the mosquitoes drove us indoors. All in all, a pretty successful Halloween!