A Yoga Coffee Outlook

More Down Time

It's 3 AM and I should be fast asleep but now that I'm in the habit of writing something everyday it felt weird to not blog something. I spent Saturday doing some redesign to the store and I will still need to finish a few things later today which is kind of pathetic but it has to be done.

I spoke to Kris, we've been playing phone tag for the last couple of weeks. He let me know that he reached his fund raising goal for the MS bike ride and is ready to go next weekend. Thank you again to everyone who made a donation. It was good to finally speak with him and put a voice to the face. Turns out he's a sushi fan so we're hoping to get together sometime this month to grab a bite.

Traffic up to the condo was as bad as I thought it would be. Seems like everyone had the same idea to miss the Friday night rush by coming up tonight. I was a little disappointed to find rotten milk and shriveled oranges in the refrigerator when I got here. Housekeeping is suppose to remove those things. It wasn't a big deal but I think I've mentioned before that I'm paying a lot and feel like I'm getting very little. It's nice being here though.

I spoke to Lisa and I'm going to pick her up at the Eagle airport tomorrow. Her husband is already here. She told me her Dad is not feeling well and her parents may leave in the morning before she arrives, so he is going to drive them down and meet us later. I really really need the down time. All of this podcasting, late hours, and correspondence has been taking a toll. My energy is super low lately and I'm just feeling so blah. I am really going to try not to crack open my laptop while I'm here unless it is completely necessary.

Got Miles?

Last year I did freelance consulting exclusively. I was away from home 36 of the 52 weeks in the year. Looking back I'm not sure what I was thinking, it was an experience to be sure. Constant traveling left me with a bank of 218,000 frequent flyer miles. Not all of that was from actual travel. I didn't save them for any purpose, they just compounded faster than I could use them.

So today I cashed in some of those miles for a fare. Maybe it's just me but it seemed a lot tougher than it use to be. I was on hold for 48 minutes. It was easy enough once I got through, but 48 minutes? Of course like a lemming I followed the automated phone directory and selected the option identifying myself as someone wanting to use reward miles to purchase a ticket. I'd be willing to bet that those calls are cued for a longer hold time. I know the airlines are hurting, but where is the love?

Note to self: Self, buy ridiculous hands free phone headset before booking next ticket.

Las Vegas Trades

It's my preference to take the earliest flight possible. My thought being that 99% of the time, your plane is already there.. so fewer delayed flights. This way of thinking has worked for years so I guess I was due for today's delay. After boarding a sold out plane to Las Vagas we ended up sitting at the gate for 2 hours. I think we sat there longer than the actual flight takes.

Rule of thumb here is that when your flight is delayed more then 30 minutes it will set into motion a chain of events that will cause inevitable continued lateness.

Baggage claim.. 40 minutes.. The second flight out of Denver beat us by 20 minutes and we had to wait for that flights baggage to clear the carousel.

When I did finally get to the rental car agency, they had no cars. So I walked... (Kidding).

I took a cab. My driver was very nice. He told me the ol'.. I use to drive Sinatra around back in the day.. story. I think they tell tourists this to get a better tip...

So now I'm here and heading out to pick up my credentials.