On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

...my mom got her suitcase back!

Finally.

And what a journey it has been.

Day 1:
- The bag didn't arrive to Chicago customs on mom's original flight on the 15th. That flight from Munich was delayed, and mom missed the connection to Austin, and had to spend the night in Chicago. She arrived here on the 16th.
Day 2:
- We filled a baggage claim report on the 16th with United, and the Austin airport. We were expecting the bag to be here within 24 hours.
Day 3:
- On the 17th, we started calling the 1800 #, and realized it always routes to India. They were just telling us they are tracing it, but don't yet have the confirmation of the location of the bag. We told them about the medications in the bag, and asked it the search can be expedited. The snow storms were making havoc in Germany, and many flights were delayed/canceled.
Day 4:
- The calls continued on the 18th. Someone gave us the WorldTracer number, which supposedly could be used by Lufthansa as well, but their system didn't pull up anything with that number. We called LH in the US, and were quickly told they cannot track anything for us. It is United's problem, and they need to do the investigation. We got LH Baggage Service number in Munich and started calling them for us with no answer. At midnight we called LH at Sarajevo airport, and were at least told the bags left that airport on that first flight. They were assuring us that the bag is still in Munich, because it was chaos there with delays.
Day 5:
- Continued calling LH in Munich for 3-4 hours on the 19th. Started with daily calls to India requesting them to send new requests to all the airports to do another search.
Day 6:
- On the 20th, United folks in India told me the bag is on flights Munich-Chicago-Austin for that day! Great news. The bag was last scanned in Chicago, and it should be in Austin that evening. The status on united site also updated to say the bag is on the way to its final destination. Bought few items and will file interim expense claim for those. Mom finally had a good night sleep.
Day 7:
- When no one called us by 11am on the 21st, I called United in India again. Now I was told they again don't know where the bag is?! It was not scanned in Chicago, like I was said the day before. The last scan was in Munich! The online status changed back to "At this time, we have not been able to confirm the location of your property". Sad. Confusing. Requested another search request sent to all the airports.
Day 8:
- If the bag is not in Sarajevo, and we can't get any response from Munich and Chicago, lets call Austin airport. We got someone to answer on the 22nd, by accident. The lady searched their little office, and the red bag was not there. We went there ourselves that evening, and searched United' and all other airlines' baggage offices. No bag. We spent almost two hours at the airport, asking to get other phone numbers, another search in the system, to talk to someone from United in Chicago. Finally that lady connected us to a phone that she could not give to us, and we talked to their office in Chicago. They did the same manual search, and the bag was not there. So, it meant it's still sitting in Munich. They even had trouble reading their report; first they read that it was sent on those flights, then that it only meant that someone requested for the bag to be sent on those flights. I managed to get a copy of their internal messaging printout with record of all the daily activity about our bag.
Day 9:
- On 23rd, daily call to India requesting another search request sent to Munich airport
Day 10:
- On Christmas Eve, the 24th, called some friends in Sarajevo to buy and send mom the medications, since we have no idea if the bag will ever arrive.
Day 11:
- On 25th, daily call to India requesting another search request sent to Munich airport
Day 12:
- On the 26th, I googled up some 13 email addresses for LH in Germany, and sent a mass email to all about our complain requesting some response. 5 addresses came back as not good.
Day 13:
- In the morning of the 27th, we got an email response from the LH Supervisor Baggage Services in Munich, apologizing for not being able to contact them. He said they had 10,000 bag backlog! And he confirmed that our "bag has definitely left Munich on 20 December to Chicago onto UA7638 on 20 December to Austin". Now what?! Email him back asking to double-check. United site still says they don't know the location. Called LH in the US - they don't handle the search; was told to call United. Called United in India - was told the bag arrived in Austin today at 11am! Asked to double-check (they've made mistakes before), but they still confirm it. Didn't want to tell mom about it until I can confirm with Austin airport, but they didn't pick up for an hour. In the mean time, the bag was delivered to our door.

Hallelujah!!!

Christmas With the Family

Oh what a wonderful day it was!

I went to the Midnight Mass at the Cathedral, which started with Carols & Lessons at 11PM. Even at 11 the church was almost completely packed, and I barely managed to squeeze into one of the last few empty seats - the benefit of entering the church solo. People who arrived just ten minutes later had to stand on the sides. The church was warm, decorated, people dressed festively, and four priests plus the bishop were celebrating! And I got another little present from the Holy Spirit...loved it! :)

I didn't get to bed until 3am. My godmother called me just after 9am on Christmas Day. I was just waking up, but am so glad we got to talk, even for just a brief time. Then I got up, put some logs in the fireplace, and mom and I had our long morning coffee together. Then my brother got up and joined us. He bought several gallons of special milk and started making some cheese, four different kinds over the next couple of days. Mom made us some puffy pastries and we had breakfast at 1pm. We were in no rush. Then, we opened our gifts, taking turns. Mom's luggage still didn't arrive, so we will have another round of presents, hopefully by the New Year's Day.









As I cleaned up all the paper and put away the presents and boxes, mom took a nap, and Zoran continued with cheese making.

In the late afternoon we went for a walk in our neighbourhood. It was very cold, around 40F, but sunny and crispy, just as the Christmas Day in Austin should be.

When we got back, we turned on the fireplace again, and watched the Christmas story on the TV. It was I think the 5th repeat of it on that day, so we watched it in pieces and finished some time later that evening. Then we all got cozy on my long couch and Zoran setup up for us to watch a movie on Netflix. It was an Italian movie, about a middle age man who for a few days got to take care of his elderly mother and three other old ladies. We though our mom would enjoy it, and she did. I made us plates to sample the food we made the day before, and also try Zoran's two cheeses, and sipped on some beer, which mom rarely gets to do. It was such a lovely evening, just sitting together like that, next to the fire, leisurely snacking on 'meze' food, and watching that movie that somewhat relates to where we are in life today. I just kept thinking how I wanted to savor that warm, happy moment.

We actually never had a real dinner that evening. We were so full on just that finger food. But we did make some room for desert. :) Christmas Chocolate Log.

Oh, what a glorious, peaceful, memorable day this was!

Christmas Lights

I love it that some people spend weeks, even months, planning for and setting up their Christmas lights displays. I like to be done with it in couple of hours on my house, but I appreciate someone else's effort and love driving around neighbourhoods looking at those displays. KXAN put up a Holiday Lights Map to help us onlookers navigate.

Mom and I drove around few neighbourhoods in Round Rock. It was nice a warm, so we could drive around with our windows rolled down. It was nice to see neighbours come together and decorate entire street, put trails of lights on their lawns, even string lights from side of the street to the other. Some had lights synchronized to music, and a sign in the yard let the visitors know to which frequency to tune to. Our favorite was from http://ListenToOurLights.com (they asked me to remove their address).



1626 Belvedere Place


http://ListenToOurLights.com

Travel Troubles and Family Fun

If I thought my life was lacking some excitement lately, that has certainly changed in the last few days. My mom is coming for a longer visit.

She was supposed to arrive last Wednesday, but because of terrible snow storms in Europe, her flight from Munich was delayed, and she missed the connection in Chicago and had to spend the night there. We called the hotel few times to make sure she has all the expenses covered, gets the wake up call in the morning and knows when and where the shuttle will be. She arrived in Austin on Thursday. But, her bag didn't.

We filled the delayed bag report, and were expecting the bag to be here the next day. But, it didn't happen. What followed were days of frustrating calls to United, which were routed to India, and we were always just told they still don't have any information on where the bag is. Lufthansa in the US would not give us any information because the report was filled with United. Lufthansa in Bosnia was reassuring us that the bag is just delayed in Munich because of all the canceled flights there. And Lufthansa in Germany never picked up the phone, even after several hours of repeat calls. What made the matter more urgent was that mom's blood pressure medications were in that bag (she only had few days worth of supplies in her carry-on) and that is not something we can just purchase at Walmart.

We got a glimpse of hope on Monday morning when United told us the bag is scheduled to be on the flights Munich-Chicago-Austin that evening. Mom's blood pressure went to normal with just that news. We were expecting the delivery today. Instead, this morning they again posted they can't "confirm the location of our property". Seriously?! What kind of operation is that?! And so the waiting continues...

The week was busy. We had my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner on Thursday, and mom met Emilia for the first time. Even with the language barrier, the communication was just fine. We went to their place on Saturday, and had them over for dinner on Sunday again. Emilia is leaving town for a week, so we wanted to spend some time together before that. Mom also had one English class on Saturday, and we ended the evening with a Christmas concert by Austin Civic Chorus. Last night we went to look at some Christmas lights (another post) and for some shopping for the stuff that are in the delayed baggage...

It would be really nice if that bag arrives before Christmas. It would be a great Christmas present. :)

The Human Experience

Saw this movie last night.



A very powerful documentary exploring the question of the meaning of life. Our individual lives, and our lives in the communities and the entire world would be better and more meaningful if we all re-discovered what it means to be human.

Highly recommend the film.

Joyful Sunday

Since Christmas Day this year falls on a Saturday, Advent this year is exactly four full weeks long. The Gaudete ("rejoice" in Latin) Sunday marked the half-way point.

This whole year I feel has gone by so quickly for me, and it is also true during this season. Since my mom is coming in a few days, in order to spent more time with her, I wanted to finish up several tasks before that: clean the house, decorate, buy and wrap the presents, and other mundane chores. Preparations.

This third Sunday of Advent, is just a little more special than the other days of Advent season, which is otherwise of a penitential character. The Church rejoices on this Sunday in the nearness of the Lord's coming with additional signs of gladness. In my household, the Christmas tree is put up, decorated and surrounded by presents on this Sunday.

This year a group of us also went to a nursing home to sing Christmas carols to the residents there. My friend Norma volunteers at the Hearthstone nursing home, so she arranged for us to sing during their lunchtime. We've been caroling there for the last couple of years, and last year it was actually on Christmas Day. This Sunday worked out really well, because more residents were there and more people were able to come sing than last year. My friend Irene invited half of the choir from the St. Albert church, and they did an awesome job harmonizing! The hour and a half went by in no time.

St. Nick Brought Me This Year...

... a sister-in-law!!!

My little brother got married on December, 6th, 2010, at 5PM!

Emilia is a very sweet girl, three and half years younger than Zoran, with very loving, gentle, and patient personality. I loved how she reacted calmly when my brother had one of his can't-do-something-panic-freak out moments. :)

They married in front of judge Herb Evans, a jolly fellow in cowboy boots who, if he had a red suit on, could pass for St. Nick. It was a small ceremony, with just myself present as a guest, and they will have a full wedding ceremony in a year and a half when they both graduate and can afford it.

They were so cute. :) All excited and giddy. Emilia broke her foot couple of weeks ago (skipping on the street being all excited and giddy), so she was on the crutches and judge let them sit during the ceremony. It was all over in less than 8 minutes, and it still is all a blur to me. Surreal.

Emilia, I am so happy you are now part of the family!

They had plans for a romantic dinner later that evening, so I just treated them to drinks at The Driskill. It was all a very simple family event.







Congratulations Zoran and Emilia!
Love you both very much!

Giving Thanks

I love that we have at least this one day to remind us that we have so much to be thankful for. I know I needed a reminder lately.

I like to think that we have started a little tradition, to have my brother and his future wife over for Thanksgiving. They both like to cook, and that gives me an inspiration to whip up some of my favorites, too.

A week before we started throwing some ideas out about the menu. We liked all, so we didn't cut any of them from the list! The two of them came over the night before, and we spent good 4 hours in the kitchen on Wednesday evening. The plan was to have dishes ready for dinner, so we were pretty much cooking for another 6 hours on Thursday. It was so nice to do it with dear company, chatting, helping each other, listening to music... It was such a pleasant day! And the weather was unusually warm, it the 80s, until it dropped down to 50s in a matter of couple of hours in the afternoon.

In the end, we made 14 different things, all from scratch! It was a mix of traditional home cooking, fancy vegetarian dishes, and traditional Thanksgiving food. Our menu included:
- Celery Root and Chestnut Soup With Brussels Sprouts
- Prosciutto wrapped asparagus
- Organic Turkey
- Gravy
- Cranberry-orange sauce
- Harvest-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
- Fresh French green beans sauteed with organic carrots
- Fingerling baby potatoes
- Perl onions in bechamel sauce
- Baby spinach, strawberries, and almonds salad
- Red wine vinegar, master seeds and dill dressing
- Cucumber, green onions, yogurt salad
- Ferrero Rocher cake
- Tart cherries pie
- Merlot (Cupcake) wine

Masterworks Singers

I joined the Masterworks Singers choir couple of months ago. It is a choir that started as a diocesan choir, that performed at different church events, like ordination and chrism Masses, but since there were singers who were not members of the Church, they decided to change the name last year. And, Masterworks Singers choir was born.

They would still perform at diocesan events, but they also have two independent concerts each year, spring and fall. They practice at St. Edwards University, and the choir directors are Morris Stevens and Michael McKelvey who are music professors at St. Ed's and choir directors at St. Theresa's and St. Albert's, respectively. They are both good directors, but I personally prefer Morris' style. He has so much passion and energy for choral music!

Well, after only 6 weeks of rehearsals, we had our fall concert this past Saturday: "Between Heaven and Earth." It was great. On the program were:

Mozart Regina Coeli..K. 276
Bruckner motets, Os Justi and Locus Iste
Stroope American Rhapsody
Gjeilo Northern Lights
Tichelli Earth Song
Leavitt Festival Sanctus

Several familiar faces came to enjoy it and support us. It has a been a long day of rehearsals, and after the concert I got to relax and enjoy the company of two very special friends.

The choir is planing an Ireland tour for May of 2011, and I hope to join them. It's going to be a blast! A week of touring all over Ireland, visiting places like Killarney National Park, Iveragh Mountains, and Cliffs of Mohar, and singing at few locations including St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin!

This would be my first time in Ireland, and the travel bug already gets me excited. As if it ever stopped. :)

The Tree Is No More

The second tree in the front yard is gone. It has been struggling ever since I moved in here. I had it trimmed of all (completely) dead branches this spring, which there were many already back then. I also gave it feeding and extra water, all in the hopes of giving it a chance to recover. But, it seems it just needed to be put out of its misery, as one lady at home depot had told me.

Last weekend, while I was trimming the bushes, my next door neighbour came over and just offered to cut the tree down. What a nice man. He has bought himself a chain saw recently, and just enjoys working with it, but seems he has run out of trees in his yard. :) So, he cut it down, and I let him take the wood for their outdoor fire pit.

Now I plan on getting another tree for the front yard sometime this winter. I still have to do some research on when to plant, what is available, is resilient to TX heat and occasional droughts, lack of care, doesn't suffer if I put grass weed&feed around it, has leaves for most of the year, and maybe have a nice bloom. Couple of years ago I had another pine tree cut down from the front yard. It died after moth infestation. I hope there is nothing in the ground that is causing these trees to die.

If you have any suggestions, please send them my way.