United Airlines has been doing a lot of things right lately.  I spend a lot of time on this airline, and am already half-way to 1K status this year (missed it by about 8,000 miles last year, booking a total of 92,000 qualifying miles, and over 200,000 actual miles).  I'm not talking about Ted, though I did hear an interesting theory on why they started that brand (maybe I'll discuss that later).  United has rolled out fairly ubiquitous T-Mobile wireless broadband in their terminals (PDX, O'Hare, Denver, SFO, and probably others).  I buy blocks of day passes and make pretty good use of the connectivity.  Right now I'm sitting in the Red Carpet Club at PDX getting ready for my flight to O'Hare.

So, why is this day significant?

1. Julie and I were married 13 years ago today in St. Louis, May 18 1991.  What an amazing 13 years!  We were married the day after she graduated from Washington University; I had graduated the year before and was half-way through my graduate program at UC Santa Barbara.  Since getting married we've lived in Culver City CA, Dayton OH, Boise ID, and Sherwood OR.  We also managed to bring into the world a couple of pretty cool boys.
2. I was commissioned into the US Air Force on May 18, 1990.
3. Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980.  Even though I was fairly young (12) living far away (Indianapolis, IN), I have very vivid memories following this story line.