Home for Labor Day

I'm sitting in my home office writing this blog because this week happens to be the week that I'm slated to work from home so that I can be around for Labor Day. I was rolled off my client early so that means I get to spend next week at home too! Ahh the sweetness of it! I get to spend lots of quality time with my wife and cats which is always a good thing. I'm trying to get a new assignment and it looks like I'll be heading out to Houston. I've never been there before so this will be something nice and new. If I'm lucky, I might be able to make it to an Astro's game or something. :) Woo another hat to add to my growing collection, if I made it to the Tiger's game I was planning on going to in Detroit I would have gotten a hat as a souvanir.

Now that I'm home, I'll probably blog a bit more until I'm deployed. Look out for more boring crap from me!

Super Secret Status

This past weekend I registered for super secret bad ass status with Avis. I'm working on Diamond for Hilton but I just got Avis First status after sending an inquiry to Avis customer service. After I complete 3 rentals a month I get a free weekend rental. I just got this status but its just plain awesome since I rent with Avis so much. I've also found that they have the best rates over all.

I don't know what other fun perks I'll be getting but they have to be pretty decent after all the cars I've rented with this company, maybe I'll get some free upgrades to an luxury car or something one day. Their cars are sometimes not that great but over all I've enjoyed the experience. When I start returning the car to the place I rented it, they'll probably give me even better cars since I know they're giving me crap because I'm not returning it to the same facility currently.

For now, I'm going to see how much I can milk this. It's going to be so sweet!

Pontiac G6

This week I got a Pontiac G6 as a rental car from my lovely friends at Avis. I gotta say that this is one sweet ass ride. This little car has some pull. I think its a class above the Neon and Focus but with a much bigger engine, better sound system and over all its just hella fun to drive! I floored it just for kicks while coming to my hotel up the entrance ramp and that little car MOVES! If I knew I was going to be a consultant a few years ago, I probably would have loved this to be my airport car. It's American so I don't mind it getting dinged up since it doesn't retain value, but it would be cool to go on the highways because it has so much power. If I could request this car every week I would but there's always the possibility I'll get an even better car one of these days. :)

South Florida is Hot Hot Hot

This past Sunday I decided to go to the swimming pool at my community with my wife to of course do a little swimming and to cool off. It had been pretty hot the last couple of days that I was at home and thought that a nice swim would be a way to cool off. It even rained an hour before hand so the water should have been nice and cool right? WRONG!

The pool water felt a lot like bath water when I jumped in. It was pretty interesting given the fact it was about 90 degrees outside and the water temp was actually hotter than that. I held out my arms in the air for a couple minutes and dunked them back in the pool and it felt really hot when I did that. But I enjoyed staying in the pool so I stuck it out. Normally I would have left but I don't get to stay home often or use the pool so better to take advantage of the opportunity while it presented itself.

Maybe for my next place the pool water won't be so hot in the summer time. It just needs to be October already so its not 90 degrees in the evening (I know its sad isn't it?)

Forgot my socks

After my little scare a few weeks ago by getting stuck in Detroit, I've been packing an extra set of clothes in my suitcase. I've also taken to working out at the gym at the Double Tree where I'm staying so thats another pair of clothes entirely. As fate would have it, I went ahead and packed all the extra clothes I normally do except for white sports socks that I use for working out. Fortunately I had at least one pair but I used up some cash buying more socks. I need to start making a packing checklist so I stop forgetting stuff.

Being Gold rules

I checked into the Double Tree at my client site this week and much to my surprise, I got a coupon for $5.00 at the gift shop. Now I know its only $5.00 but that means I can get 5 free bottles of water which is super sweet. I also get breakfast in the morning now which is particularly awesome. Hopefully I'll wake up early enough to start taking advantage of this perk of mine. I've worked hard to get my Gold status with Hilton. I'm earning about 4000 points a stay which isn't a lot but when you add it up over time, I'm looking at some free hotel stays in 2008 when I finally go on a nice long vacation.

I'm not doing so hot on my points for the airlines but thats because they expire too fast and I don't earn that many of them when I fly. Besides, I can get some free flights by giving up my seat when I start flying Air Tran again. Ahh the wonders of travel.

More troubles with Northwest

I've been doing a fair amount of travel with Northwest Airlines for my current client. So far they have been the most unreliable air carrier that I've ever taken. Last night they left at least an hour later than they were supposed to and with my drive home I didn't get here until at least 2am which to me is quite un-acceptable. It's a good thing I'm not flying with them for much longer.

I've changed flights because I'm just tired of always being delayed by the major carriers. It seems to me that the smaller carriers like Jet Blue and Air Tran are doing much better in terms of being on time and they're also a little more generous with their food. Hopefully I'll earn some free flights with Air Tran once I start taking them come September.

The first to return Harry Potter

This was amusing to me so I thought I should blog about it. For the Barnes and Noble store in Pembroke Pines, I am the first person to return their Harry Potter book or so the salesperson says. I bought one earlier today because the ones that my wife ordered hadn't come in yet. Well to our great surprise they did come in today so I returned the one I bought. They didn't question it but if they had I'd have to point out that its quite difficult for any normal person to read the whole book (which is over 700 pages) in only 5 hours. I'll probably read it later tonight or something after watching my Saturday evening TV of course.

More travel woe's

I would have to say that work-wise this was the worst travel experience yet. Since I fly around the country for a living I'm sure I'll have even more stories to tell in the coming years which should entertain people if they bother to read the ole blog.

Anyway, I was all set to leave from the little regional airport in Michigan like I always do, turned my craptacular car in (Subaru Forrester) and then noticed that the security area was closed off. I looked at the screens and they said everything was on time. I went over to the ticket counter (the airport is so small its less than 100 feet away) and inquired what was going on. The ticket dude (who pulled like triple duty as the ticket agent, the gate attendant, and doing stuff on the tarmac) said that the flight from Detroit had been delayed and they expected a 7:30PM take off.

OK, no sweat, 7:30 will still give me half an hour to get to my other gate in Detroit so I can catch my ride home. 7:30 arrives and the plane just arrived and started to get people off. OK I think I can still deal with that, it'll be really tight but I think I can still make it to my gate in time. The flight of course is quite un-eventful until we actually land. Due to some snafu or whatever you want to call it, the gate that my plane was supposed to use was occupied. Sounds like a simple problem right? Put the plane in a free gate. The pilot comes on and says that Detroit is experiencing heavy traffic in Michigan and there are more planes coming in than taking off to avoid some sort of storm. Pah! Like I care, just park the stupid plane so I can get on my way!

Here's the kicker, 45 minutes later I'm still on the same plane, still parked on the tarmac and no closer to the terminal. I saw a couple planes park next to mine and then leave to go to gates but for some funny reason mine was still sitting there eating jet fuel and pissing everyone off. At this point I've checked with the airline and lo and behold my flight left without me. Luckily I work for one of those ultra huge companies that have their own travel agents so I call them up and ask them if there are any flights out to Ft. Lauderdale that night. Because of my incredibly good fortune so far, there are no other flights out and most of the flights for tomorrow are booked solid. Since I had this funny feeling that I was already re-booked on another flight, I told the travel agent I would call back if I needed further assistance.

After finally getting off the plane, I just saw a sea of people in terminal C which is the smaller terminal in Detroit, terminal A was my destination and I decided to head to my gate to see what the deal was. Being impatient, I decided to skip my gate and go to any gate to see what could be done. The kind gate agent at A74 (this is ALL the way at the other end of the airport from terminal C) just printed out my boarding pass for this morning and said I'd be on the 7:11am flight. I asked her what about hotel accommodations since it was mechanical/maintenance failure at the gate and not the weather. She told me to go to Gate 41/43 and wait in line to see if I can get a voucher for a hotel. I decided to take the nice train that they have in terminal A to Gate 41/43 and the line was HUGE! Obviously I'm not the only schmuck stranded in Detroit because the gates were all fouled up and there was no where to park the jets. I took a look at the line and calculated how long it would take me to get to the front and after coming up with about an hour or so to two hours, I determined that all the hotel rooms will be gone by then. I decided to phone my boss who said to go ahead and book a room and charge it in, just not to go to some $300 a night place since I'm waking up at 5am anyway. Ahh gotta love the travel agent! I call them up and get a spot at the Crowne Plaza right by the airport.

I decide to go down to the waiting area for the shuttle and see another sea of people calling up hotels trying to get a place to stay. Luckily I have my confirmation number on my phone so I have nothing to worry about. The first thing I noticed is that the DoubleTree where I normally stay in Michigan is WAY nicer which is kind of sad considering I'm in Detroit. The second is that room service is way over priced. I paid $18 for five pieces of coconut shrimp and a Sierra Mist. If I wasn't so hungry I wouldn't have spent the money but as it is, it was 11PM and a man's gotta eat. Alas I only have five hours to sleep but normally that should be enough. But the tale doesn't end there...............

Ahh this morning! I get up, stretch and get ready to head out. There are bunch of people heading out at the wee hours of the morning as well but thats not surprising considering the large amount of people stranded. I decided to take the 5:30 shuttle to the airport so I could get there early and also because I have no idea what the wait times are like in Detroit for security. Surprisingly I breeze through security and head for my gate which is all the way at the end. (A55). So far things are going pretty good. I'm a bit hungry but no matter, I'll be home at 10AM right? WRONG!! As we're on the plane and after we push off to actually get under way, the pilot comes on the PA system and says that they're having some technical difficulties starting up the right engine but its nothing to worry about, they'll just pull in and have the maintenance guys start it up from the engine compartment instead of the cockpit. Hmmm that doesn't sound like just a little problem, what if the stupid engine cuts out while we're in flight? I'm not too confident that the Airbus A320 can stay up in the air with just one engine. As luck would have it yet again, they tell us the plane is busted after about 15 minutes and we're forced to de-plane. Yay delayed again!! The flight attendant tells us to go into the terminal and to a new gate so we can grab the next plane that comes in. Hmm doesn't sound too bad except the next plane doesn't come in till around 8:30! They also have to taxi, get to the gate, de-plane, clean, inspect, re-fuel, and re-board everyone. Estimated departure time: 9:30AM.

At this point I'm starving so I decide to use up some more cash and get some breakfast which wasn't all that bad. Kind of like the BK breakfast sandwich that I like. After wolfing that down its about time to board and take off. The rest of the flight is quite uneventful except that I was sleeping when they were handing out drinks and snacks. So now I'm at home working from my home office writing up my blog. This has to be one of the longest entries ever but I felt I couldn't leave out details, this was one trip to remember!

A strange freebie at the ball park

Tonight I went to the Class A Great Lakes Loon's game near my client site. The game was pretty good and the stadium was awesome. The stadium itself was brand new and the teams weren't that bad although I've seen better in Class A (Tampa Yankees) but at least the home team homered twice. I didn't stay until the end of the game though but thats alright, the tickets were nice and cheap and I'll probably go to another game. The only thing that was really weird was the gate gift at the end of the game. And the gate gift was.............................. a loaf of bread.................... yes thats right I now am the proud owner of a loaf of bread. Since I haven't received my Diamond Status with Hilton yet I don't get my free breakfast at the Double Tree so this will do until I finally hit it.

All I need now is some free butter and I'll be all set!

I just saw Transformers the Movie today with my wife and I have to say that the movie totally kicked ass. The special effects were excellent and the story line was pretty good too. If you ever liked Transformers as a kid, this is a must see movie. Who can't enjoy big giant robots blowing stuff up??? :)

Ahh Tea!

Yesterday I bought some tea from Teavana and I have to say that its really good stuff. I bought two different types, one is called the Rooibos Tropica and the other is the Rooibos Key Lime. They're mixed with some other teas to get a pretty good taste and I'll probably buy more when I run out. I also bought their perfect tea maker so I can always get a great cup of tea. I know its pretty cheesy but I thought why not, I bought my dad one and he loves it. Maybe I'll get some crumpets to go with my tea........

The last of my 20's

This month I'm going to be turning 29. Seems a bit depressing considering I can only call myself a 20 something for another 365 days or so. Next year I hit the dreaded 30! I'm thinking of getting lasik so I don't need my glasses anymore, I think that would be a really cool gift to myself, the gift of sight with no glasses. Then I can start buying cheap sunglasses like everyone else. I'd do the contact thing but it just didn't feel right when I tried them.

The other option is to get a car or something to soothe myself for turning 30. Although thats a bit on the expensive side and the thing will do nothing but sit in the FLL garage most of the week or the garage here at my house.

Only 19 days to go, the Amazon Wishlist is updated though :) Just look for stuff with the highest priority, thats what I want for my 29th B-day.

The Soaring Eagle Casino

This past week I went to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant MI. It was quite the interesting experience. it felt like a much smaller version of Foxwoods. I didn’t play that much while I was there, just a slot machine and at least i was able to come out $2.00 ahead.

The real reason that I went was for the buffet that was there. it was prime rib night for only $20.00 so of course me and some of the people that I work with went. that right there is an unbeatable deal. I stayed a little while longer after dinner to watch some of my co-workers play things like black jack or roulette. Maybe one day when I have some extra money to burn I’ll go ahead and try one of those games out.

Only one thing bothered me about the slots at that casino, they didn’t take coins. I had a whole stack of coins in my pocket but I couldn’t even use them since the machines only took dollar bills. I guess that’s the direction gambling is going in. I’ll admit it certainly makes things easier for the casino because they don’t need to lug around heavy sacks of coins everywhere when they empty or refill the machines. Maybe I’ll go back to the casino later on since it was a pretty good time.

A lemon of a car

This week I probably had the worst car to date. I was given a Chevy Impala that had just been cleaned up and it was basically one of the only cars they had left. I'm sure that’s due to the fact I come in so late and a lot of the people that fly to Flint are on business and need to rent cars.

The biggest problem with the Impala was the fact that the tire was leaking. I could basically deal with that but it was still a bit annoying. The passenger seat belt also didn’t work but that didn’t bother me that much. The last thing that I have to complain about was the ride. I’m sure if the car hadn’t been abused it would have driven fine but someone did a real number on this car. It basically felt like a massage chair on speed when I got close to 70MPH. I drive about that fast on my way to work so I took it as a good thing when I was in a decent mood and a bad thing when I was slightly annoyed. this coming week I’m staying home so no rental car for me till July 9. I want to try out a Subaru legacy one of these days just to see how they are, its getting it that’s tricky. Oh well, we'll see what happens. Whoohoo 4th of July week coming up! :)

Wii-mania continues

This morning my wife and I decided to head on over to Best Buy just to kill some time so we could get hungry enough to eat a decent amount of dim sum for lunch. Best Buy opened at 11am and when we arrived, we got there maybe 15 minutes after the store opened. There was a huge line for the checkout line and almost everyone in it was holding a Wii. I could only say to my wife "suckers" since I didn't have to wait in a huge ass line to get my Wii :)

Right now we're playing Wii Golf and a game called Trauma Center which is definitely a different type of game all together and there's no way any other console could do this game without the inventive Wii-mote. I'm off to my client tomorrow so no more gaming till Friday. I'll just have to keep myself entertained with Lego Star Wars on my wife's PSP till I get home.

Wii Power!

Yesterday I went out and bought myself a Nintendo Wii for me and my wife. I have to say that the Wii has provided the most fun gaming experience I've had in a long time. I haven't bought any real games for it yet, I might go ahead and rent some later this weekend though just to try things out. The fact that I can use it with some of my older GameCube games is awesome. Right now I'm playing Wii sports that came with the console and its pretty damn fun. I'll probably play it again tonight with Claire to see who's best :)

Almost stuck in NY

On Sunday evening I was supposed to get on a plane with my wife and sister-in-law to head back to Ft. Lauderdale on Spirit Airlines. My wife and sister-in-law get their tickets just fine but I was having problems so I go to the ticket agent to get my ticket. When I give her my info they tell me that my ticket was never purchased and that there were no more seats on the plane. I had gone through my company travel agent to get my ticket on Spirit but because they're not one of the approved carriers, its a little complicated for them to get me a ticket.

I call up my travel agent to see what happened because everything that I have with me says that I'm confirmed for the flight. The travel agent scrolls through the record and finds a notation that my ticket wasn't purchased because of an invalid credit card. How that was possible is beyond me considering that my credit card is my corporate card and I've been using it for months. Since I couldn't get on the Spirit Airlines flight I ask if there are any other flights home, no matter what the cost because I just have to get home. My wife, being the excellent wife that she is, is checking with Jet Blue which isn't too far away from Spirit in the terminal to see if there are any flights and there is for over $300. I put that in the back of my mind just in case I need it and proceed to discuss travel arrangements with my travel agent. At first it sounds like he has me on a Delta flight which isn't bad because I can get extra points with them, the only downside is that I caught him buying a ticket for Newark to Ft. Lauderdale rather than La Guardia to Ft. Lauderdale. For my friends who know the tri-state area, we all know Newark is no where close to La Guardia.

After trying out different options, most of which did not leave from LGA or left the next morning, I decided to purchase my ticket on JetBlue. Although I might be out $300, I'm going to fight it out with my travel agent to get some of my money back considering something went very wrong with this trip. I'm all booked up for my flights to my client for the next few weeks and I know those are OK because I have seat assignments and everything.

All I can say is that this past weekend was the worst traveling experience I ever had, its a good thing I didn't have checked luggage because I know that something would have happened to it if I did and then I really would have had a terrible weekend travel-wise.

A night out in NY

I was in the NY area for a little over 24 this past weekend because I had to go to a baptism where I was playing Godfather. I did make time to go out with a few friends from back home on Saturday night. My friend Johnson, being the good man that he is, was able to drive Claire and I to NY. We were meeting our friends Lucy and Luan at Penang near NYU. I used to go to Penang in Queens but I don't know where it is anymore and there isn't anything to do in Queens after dinner anyway so this location made the most sense.

The food there was as good as the food at the Penang in Queens, the location was nicer too. Since we arrived late, Lucy and Luan came from a bar and started to get hammered but they didn't get too far since we arrived only half an hour after we were supposed to. There I had all my favorite dishes and appetizers as well as this really good watermelon drink that I had never tried before. There are pictures from the dinner and all and I think Claire posted it on her MySpace page.

After dinner we all decided to go to a bar. The bar was FAR no matter what Luan says. The bar was actually really nice, it was black and red with some plasma TV's above the bar. I only had one drink and everyone else had at least two or three. Things got really funny when all of a sudden the movie that was playing on the TV changed over to some really bad porno. The movie was so bad it was hysterical and the fact that we had been drinking only made it that much funnier. Needless to say we left that bar to try and get into another bar but the one that we went too was just too full so we made this huge loop and ended up walking through a little bit of Chinatown as well as Little Italy.

The end of the evening was at a bakery near Penang. The place we went to was called Bruno Bakery and I must say I was surprised that it was open at 11pm. We all had some dessert to top off all the food and drinks we had earlier that evening. The evening was really fun and I hope to do it again when I take another trip to NY. I'll see if I can get some pics together and post them on Flickr, I'm not at all skilled at using Slide but eh, I'll use what I got!

Crash and Burn PS3!

I was perusing some of my regular tech and gaming sites earlier today and I came across an article that detailed that so far Sony has lost 2 billion (thats right kids, I did say BILLION) dollars on the PS3 so far. I will admit its a superior gaming machine when it comes to graphics, the Blue Ray DVD player, and 60 gig hard drive compared to my Xbox 360 (which is currently at Microsoft for repair). To me thats an incredible amount of money no matter how you slice it. Even MS is doing better but the real winner for this generation of game machines I think is the Nintendo Wii.

I plan on getting a Wii next week if I can along with Zelda and maybe another game. I may not be home a lot to play it but hey, I might as well get it because it just looks too damn fun not to!