Taco Bell Corp. (Taco Bell) is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc, specializes in Mexican-style quick service & food. According to company sources, Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, signature Quesadillas, Grilled Stuft Burritos, nachos, and other specialty items. Taco Bell serves more than 2 billion consumers annlly in more than 5,800 restaurants in the USA. 80 percent of its restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees. There are more than 278 restaurants outside the USA.
Gerri Hickman
1953-2005
Dedicated to the life and memory of Gerri Hickman. Loving wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend and teacher. Gerri was only 52 years old when she lost her 4 year battle with breast cancer on 9 April 2005.
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A couple stories from 1998
Your so lucky you get to travel all the time! Las Vegas - Got up early Sunday morning to head to McCarran Airport for my onward trip to Parsippany. At 6:30am I was standing outside the hotel waiting for the valet to bring my car around. I wasn't wearing the jacket that was draped over my luggage and didn't give any thought to it being cold, it certainly wasn't cold enough for me to think I should be putting it on..... Drove to McCarran Airport returned the car and was checking in at 7:00am for my 8:05am flight. On the tram going out the gate the guy next to me said "hey, look snow!". Sure enough there were some tiny flakes falling but nothing to write home about. The tram than dropped into the tunnel and you couldn't see outside anymore (new D gates, you drop underground on the new tram). I still had 45 minutes before my flight so I stopped for Coke and wandered over to sit by the gate. Suddenly a little kid yells out "Mommy, Mommy, look at all the snow. Is it going to be a white Christmas?" I chuckled to myself and turned around to look out the window. I was shocked to see the entire airport was white with snow and it was coming down hard! I'm talking serious flakes. As the By the way, it snowed in downtown Tokyo the day before, which is very unusual this time of year... Am I cursed? I'm almost afraid of going to Parsippany and Indianapolis. If I make it snow in places that is doesn't normally... will it snow twice as much in places where it usually does? Made it to Denver... have been re-routed to Newark via Chicago... Puts me in at 11pm... Only 6 hours late... That 7:00am pickup for the meeting suddenly seems very very early.... Wish me luck. I'm almost there.
8:35 they start boarding the Newark flight, I'm home free! Scheduled to arrive Newark at 10:30. I settle into my seat amongst all the other grumbling folks and shut my eyes thinking I can get a few winks enroute. 8:45 Captain comes on and says there will be a 15 minute delay. No problem we almost there any way... 9:00 pm Captain comes on report electrical problems, the flight is cancelled! Everyone off.
1:55am I check in. Only a 15 hour commute (usually a 3 1/2 hour flight). I'm so lucky I get to travel... Can't wait to compare notes with Dave and his travels in the morning at 6:15am. |
20 August 1998 - Penang, Malaysia Sitting here in transit at Penang Airport (Malaysia) I took off for two weeks to join Gerri and the kids in Southern California for a bit of R & R. We got a little "r" in, but definitely not the "R & R" that was needed. As many of you have already learned it is more difficult (and expensive) to push one of the fledglings out of the nest, than we ever imagined.....
Living in Southern California without a car is impossible so of course we had to go car shopping. JR is the proud new driver of a blue 98 Honda CRV. The paper work was interesting... Did you know that if you put your 18 year old son as a co-owner on the vehicle they try to clip you for a higher price. A totally new tactic to me... Needless to say after arguing with the State of California (sorry I wasn't going to bring it up again) I was not about to let a car dealer get the best of me... After a few hours of haggling and walking out the door on several occasions we finally drove away in a new car. (The dealer was still smiling when I left so I am not so naive to think we got the better of him, but at least I finally left paying what I expected to pay when I walked in...) Insurance was the next challenge. Automobile Club of Southern California (of which we are still members) and State Farm both flat turned us down because we did not have a driving record for the last three years in the USA. Rude would best describe them! FARMERS INSURANCE (did everyone hear that!) were the good guys who listened, charged a reasonable rate (is there really such a thing called reasonable when talking about insurance?) and finally wrote the policy. I had not expected this road block... Live and learn I guess. Gerri tried something new... Laser surgery for the eyes! Gerri has been Alexis is a sophomore now and has the run of the house. She does not admit it readily but I think she misses JR along with Gerri and I. Her For me it has been an interesting summer in terms of the economies in Asia are all over the place which presents lots of opportunities on the work front. Travel is heavy as usual but I did manage to play interior decorator and surprised Gerri and Alexis with a redecorated apartment upon their return. (I'm talking painting, new kitchen counters etc. nothing that will get us into Architectural Digest...) I guess that brings things up-to-date for awhile. Drop us a line if you have a mind to. If you are interested in seeing some of our summer activities and getting a glimpse of how much weight I've gained and hair I have lost or perhaps how big the kids have grown or the before and after shots of Gerri's eye surgery.. go take a look at our home page. It was great seeing family and friends albeit, as usual for these trips, very briefly.. Hope this finds you well and able to talk about a little more exciting things for your summer season. |
 Those of you who are expatriates or who ever been expatriates will probably appreciate this more than those who are not. This is all absolutely true!
Phone call to a friend to see if she would like to join them for THE EVENT OF THE YEAR. Doreen could hardly believe that they would share the moment with her. She was awed that Joe had the pull and connections to get an additional seat to this FIRST OF A KIND EVENT IN Singapore. She ran a couple blocks to the Hickman home, too excited to even wait for them to pick her up en-route. She, like Joe and Gerri, had to get there NOW! You could have sliced the anticipation in the car with a knife. The occupants were to too excited to speak. Joe concentrated on the road, Gerri double checking her make-up up over and over again. Doreen in the back seat, biting her tongue and wishing that she had told Joe about the shortcut she had discovered only a few days before but knowing, as an invited guest, she'd best not question which way they went.Although it was only actually 15 minutes it seems like hours. The last few kilometers crawled by. Doreen couldn't sit still, Joe had broken out in a sweat of anticipation and Gerri just stared out on the road. Searching, searching for the promised destination and wonders awaiting.They arrived at their destination, they knew instantly that they would have to fight their way in. There were lots of other
 Joe was too winded to speak. Gerri was screaming violently at a very small child who had dared to get in front of her. Doreen mustered the last bit of strength she had and screamed to the Goddess behind the counter...  They carried They carried tray in unison to a table. Not daring to open anything they simply stared at the contents of the tray. Sort of lusting, almost praying and certainly giving thanks for the 6 regular tacos, 1 burrito supreme, a double order of nachos and 3 cokes that TACO BELL had given them at their first outlet in Singapore. |
It is now Christmas Eve here in Singapore and just thought I'd drop a quick line to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! JR is back in Singapore for Christmas vacation, safe and sound, enjoying "no pressure to do anything" for 4 weeks.
Alexis is, well Alexis. (15 years old and everyone says this phase will pass...) I hope I let her live long enough to "grow out of it". Where did "Daddy's little girl" disappear to? (Still straight "A" report card and involved in every activity in school so no real complaints here...)I am sick (again) picked up something, somewhere between Singapore - Japan - Las Vegas - Newark - Indianapolis - Chicago - London- Singapore - Bangkok - 
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crowd gathered by the windows to watch it come down the airline folks made an announcement "Ladies & Gentleman, as we are not accustomed to snow in the desert... We do not have any de-icing equipment so we will be delayed".
It is 3:35pm which is the scheduled departure time of my 
with some time between flights so 
wearing coke bottle glasses/contacts since she was a little one and the final kicker was when she went to renew her driver's license (we still keep the Nevada licenses going so we have some US id when there, and more importantly don't have to take the dreaded driving test to renew) she failed the eye test!
from 
schedule has changed already... Apparently she was the only girl that signed up for co-ed rugby!
