We've Changed His Name to Pip Bin Laden

If you tuned into the Royal Wedding last week, you no doubt noticed that the Middleton family bears a striking resemblance to mine. Not only have both Mrs. Middleton and I spawned three attractive and seemingly intelligent children, but we share a penchant for traditional names.  We both have a Kate, we both have a James, and surely the boy name she picked out for Pippa was Matthew. Surely. So last week we changed College Boy's nickname to Pip to subtly celebrate our royal connection.

While the Ancient Mariner and I were respectively guzzling and sipping beer at Yokohama Stadium last night, Pip left a message on our answering machine.  It was 4:00 am in Norfolk, Virginia, and he was enroute to the airport.  His first year of college had officially ended.  He was happy to be heading home for the summer.

He was still reasonably happy an hour later after forking over $400 to United Airlines.  His two suitcases were over the weight limit.  This strikes me as a modern day form of highway robbery.  It's something of a miracle that he actually had $400 in his bank account to fork over.  When I was his age, I never had more than $10 in my bank account.  (Remind me some day to tell you about that monthly stipend Pip receives as a benefit of attending college on his father's GI Bill benefit.)
By the time Pip arrived in Chicago to meet his connecting flight to Tokyo, the Ancient Mariner and I were sleeping off the Kirin, Asahi, Yebisu, and Sapporo beer.  Fortunately the telephone is on the nightstand nearest the parent who can actually hear it ring.  The airline did not want to let Pip on the plane.  He showed them his military dependent ID card and his valid tourist passport (the military passport expired a few weeks ago) but the airline wanted additional proof that the U.S. Navy would welcome Pip back to Japan with open arms.  The Ancient Mariner managed to locate a semi-official document, track down an English translation of the operating manual that came with our Japanese printer, and scan the document for the airline.  Then, because he is a good dad, he stayed up for two more hours until he was certain Pip was on the airplane and that the airplane had left Chicago.

The Ancient Mariner thinks Pip's one-way ticket was the sticking point.  "There is heightened security because of Osama Bin Laden's assassination a few days ago."

As for Pip, he never wants to travel through O'Hare Airport again.  And it looks like he won't have to in the foreseeable future because he's transferring from Old Dominion University to a college in Bellingham, Washington, where he'll be reunited with several of his high school track teammates.  This should be interesting.

Here are some signs we saw at Narita Airport while waiting for Pip's plane to touch down.