It was brought to my attention that I have not updated since early in May. I’m still working out at SMF, where we are close to opening a brand new terminal. The last few months have been a serious crunch for us as the construction reached the point where we could start installing equipment and systems.

Before we got going on the new Terminal B, Terminal A needed a little love. There were some long days and some late nights while

ticket counters were gutted and removed to be replaced by brand new counters, kiosks and computers. Of course, because this was still an active terminal, this work had to be done after hours, for the most part.

Wednesday, September 21 was the first real test of the new terminal, with members of the public using the terminal for the first time as a sort of dry run. People were assigned a flight and told to check in with their respective airline. Some were checking bags, some were not. Bags were provided for those who were checking them. While in the check in/ticketing area on level 2, they were met by our newest friend, the red rabbit .

From there, they got on the new Automated People Mover to be taken to the gate area, where they saw some of the new restaurants being built. Because it was only a simulation, they didn’t spend too long on air side and had to return back to the baggage claim where they picked up the bags that they had previously checked.

We open on October 6, but there are a couple of events before the big day where you can see the terminal – the Experience B Party on October 1 ($75) and the Community Preview Day the next day (free).

The hottest trend of the past while has been food trucks. Unfortunately, this area’s not exactly friendly to them. A couple of weeks ago, there was an event to try to highlight the issue at hand. To say it was well attended would be an understatement. Luckily, I went with some friends and we were able to split into pairs for the line waiting duties and get food from two different trucks. Mini Burger Truck was one of the more popular vendors and was the one we chose. It took around an hour and a half of waiting to get to the truck and another half hour to get the food once we’d ordered. While I would have preferred not to have waited so long, it was quite delicious. I’ll definitely be tracking them down again soon.

The others waited at Curry Up Now and brought back some delicious samosas and a chicken tikka masala burrito. That was definitely one instance where fusion worked. Unfortunately, they’re not as local as Mini Burger Truck, but San Francisco’s not all that far away. I think a visit to one of  the many Off the Grid SF events is in order before too long.

For the first time in my 32 years, 8 of which have been spent in Northern California, I got to see real snow. I took a trip to Lake Tahoe at the weekend. We were visiting a family friends’ cabin, but when we got there, the key wouldn’t open the lock. It looked like there was something stuck in the keyway, but we were unable to clear it. Not to let any of this get in the way of our fun, we planted beers in the snow, opened a couple and started playing in the cold white stuff. I certainly enjoyed it, but we started scheming on ways to get into the cabin. Fortunately for us, the cabin in question was built many years ago with security not being a top priority. It was a pretty straightforward task to take the hinges off the back door and get in that way. We secured it back up when we left.  The fireplace was certainly appreciated, even if only for the ability to dry out some clothing and footwear before heading down the mountain again. It’s an experience that will have to be repeated sooner rather than later.

One of the first things I was greeted with this morning was a story about Ryanair considering charging for use of their toilets on board. The story I looked at first came from RTE, who were reporting on something said by CEO Michael O’Leary on the BBC. I didn’t quite believe it at that point. Later on, I got to see the video of the interview. The man is clearly having a laugh. It was an offhand remark that the interviewer didn’t pick up on and actually called O’Leary on. Take a look at the video - right around 0:38, O’Leary can’t believe that this guy actually believes him and decides to have some fun.

So far, the tally of places I’ve seen this story is as follows:
RTE, BBC, BoingBoing, Consumerist