Kelly Goes to White Castle

I'm in Nashville this weekend for my annual "Guys Weekend" and I had to make an early morning (11:00am) run to the White Castle down from the hotel. Nothing like a little grease to take the edge off a long night. And you can eat a ton o' slyders for $5.00. So far, my Nashville experience would have to rate an A-. Weather is great, good night-life, friendly people. Only thing I've found that I don't like is the complicated (and friggin' expensive) cab fare system. $3.00 base charge, additional $1.00 per person and $2.00 per mile. You jam seven guys in a cab and your fare is $10.00 before you leave the curb. Anyway, time to head down to the lobby for my Fantasy Baseball draft. Should be good.

Lost Luggage: Day 13

Two weeks ago, Southwest Airlines somehow managed to lose my luggage on a flight that never actually went anywhere. I checked my bag in San Antonio, got on a plane to Houston, plane took off, plane came back to San Antonio because of "weather". So far, so good (Houston isn't exactly my favorite place anyway, and I don't really mind San Antonio). Things went downhill from there. I re-booked myself on a flight back to Sacramento and the gate-agent sent somebody to pull my luggage off the plane. Ooops! Said plane was pulling away from the gate to go "somewhere". Not a huge deal. I've been flying Southwest for 12 years and they hadn't failed me before. Bastards. I finally get back to Sac'to (sans luggage) and I go to baggage claim to make a report. Chick in baggage claim says she can't take a report because my bag was checked to Houston and we were in Sacramento. I tried to explain that I never actually went to Houston, but she didn't seem convinced. Finally, she called Houston to see if they could help me. Turns out nobody was answering the phone in Houszton, so she told me to call back the next day to see if my luggage had "caught up" with me. Ha! No luggage and nobody seemed willing to take a report. Multiple phone calls later (Sacramento, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, etc.), somebody finally took a "courtesy" report for me. To their credit, Southwest was very good about calling me at 6:30am for the next five days to tell me they still hadn't found my bag. On the fifth day I was finally told it had been turned over to "central baggage" in Dallas. Great. Anyway, 13 days after my original flight and I still don't have my stuff. Moral of the story? Stay the hell outta Texas!

Goin' "Green"

Rachelle got a new car yesterday. We actually went to the Toyota dealership looking for a car for me, but we came home with a new Prius for Rachelle. Possibly the coolest car I've ever driven. So many electronic gadgets, storage compartments, flashing lights and gizmos! There isn't even a real "key" to get in or start it. You just have this little hunk of plastic that has to be close to the car when you reach for the handle and it opens, and as long as the "key" is somewhere inside the car, you start it by pushing the "POWER" button. Too friggin' cool! That said, it did take about 5 minutes to figure out how to put it in PARK after the test-drive (HINT: PUSH THE BUTTON MARKED "PARK"). Makes perfect sense, but who would've thought there would be a button for that? I've driven dozens of different cars as an owner, renter or "borrower", and not one had a "POWER" or "PARK" button. I might find things I don't like about it after we've had it for a while, but I'd definitely have to recommend the Prius to anybody looking for a mid-sized, mid-priced car. Lots of bang for your buck. Anyway, we ran up to the wineries up above Placerville today, just to see how it handled on the freeway. A surprising amount of power for a little 4-cylinder. The xA really struggles up the hills and this thing just cranked right on up. Rachelle might not want to let me drive it too much, though. It's got a fancy display that tells you how much gas you're using, whether the electric motor or the engine is actually driving the car, battery charge, etc. It's entirely possible I'll wrap it around a pole while I'm giggling about the 87.6 mpg I'm getting.

I've been told that I will also be getting a car this month, but I'll believe that when I have the keys in my grubby little hands. It's going to seem a little strange to have two nice-ish cars, but I guess that's the payback for driving cheap, crappy cars for a couple years. Having a paid for car to trade takes some of the bite out of a decent car, especially if you can get something on the trade. Needless to say, we're not going to be trading in the Ranger. Paid for? Check. Low miles? Check. Vinyl seats, 5-speed stick and crank windows? Unfortunately, check. We'd get about $100 for it.

Hmmmm...Which Meeting Am I Here For?

I'm freshly back from Las Vegas, and as anybody who has ever spent a week in Vegas can tell you, three days in Vegas is plenty. Rachelle was with me those first couple of nights so it wasn't too bad, but I scheduled my meetings in a hotel that wasn't on or near the Strip. Kind of limited my options for the rest of the week. On the plus side, the Irish bartender at the hotel bar knew my drink of choice by the third night. One really good thing about the non-touristy hotels, i.e., "dumps", is that the good beers are $2.00 ($1.50 at happy hour), and there isn't an appetizer over $2.99. My hotel wasn't actually a dump. The first couple of nights were better because my room was in the Courtyard section, which is entirely non-smoking. I was SHOCKED to find a hotel in Vegas with several hundred rooms set aside in a completely separate location for non-smokers. (FYI - Restaurants in Vegas recently went to a completely non-smoking environment. There is some trouble with the actual enforcement, but a great move in my opinion.) The real problem came when I had to change rooms on Wednesday from my non-smoking room in the non-smoking courtyard to a "hospitality suite" down the hall from the Narcotics Anonymous meeting. The people attending the NA meetings were really friendly, but they all smoked like a '72 Buick with a broken exhaust. Wussy Californian that I now am, I had to sleep with a wet towel by the door-crack to keep the smoke out. Anyway, I'm home now and all is peaceful and smoke-free. Life is probably better for me this weekend than all the people at my meeting who had to fly home to Omaha (14+ inches of snow), Florida (tornados & thunderstorms), Kansas City (cold & snow) and Chicago (snow/ice/wind). Sacramento is supposed to be upper 60's and sunny. Makes the high cost of living seem almost worth it.