Midwest Airlines

In the twisted Tim Burton-esque merry-go-round that is the American airline industry I took another turn through crazy town when I was informed by the wonderful Midwest Airlines ticketing agent that they no longer offer standby as an option, but for $50 I could get a seat on a flight.  Wha??  So in an attempt to clarify I conjured up every ounce of sarcasim I could find at 8:30 in the morning, and weaved it into my bank examiner voice and said, "so... if I undersand you, I have a ticket for a flight at 3:00 today, and you're telling me that if there is an EMPTY seat on the 10:30 flight today, a seat that will remain empty when the plane leaves this airport, that I can't have it unless I pay $50?".... to which she responded "that is correct sir."  Hey airlines, how about you make money by doing some sound business, not by shaking your customers down Goodfellas style for a nickel here and a dime there.  I'm not expecting a hand out here, like free shipping or a discount, I just want logic.  I mean I though your baggage fees were assinine, but a $50 fee to sit in an empty seat, that takes the cake.

"We know you have a choice in travel.." Yes, yes I do and Midwest, you have now moved to the bottom of my choice list.

View from a Hotel Room... St. Louis Park, MN

Hilton's Homewood Suites

Nothing in the air I breathe suggests that I'll run out...

I posted some time ago about a friend of mine Chris Jerles and his band Borrow Tomorrow,  well they've been pretty hard at work on a new album and to that end have just released a music video that is pretty awesome.  I'll say it again... If you are a fan of music and haven't checked these guys out... well you should.  Without question, some truely great and thought provoking music from a great group of guys.  My personal favorites are Wake Up, Can This Be Love  and When We're Older.  Now... straight away (I really wish I had a British accent) you'll notice this is half of the tracks on the The OneThat Stays - EP, but I really like all six, so in an effort to provide a wee bit of focus I have narrowed it to my "favorite" three.  I tried to get it down to two but couldn't decide between Wake Up and Can This Be Love and this is my blog and therefore it's my rules so... top three it is.  The video below is from one of their new songs entitled Nashville, I like it a lot and cannot wait to hear the rest.

If you like what you hear, their music is available for on iTunes and several other online stores.  Or better still if you find yourself in the Chicago or Indiana areas you should look BoTo up or give me a hollar and I'll even look it up for you (I work cheap) for their venues and showtimes.  If you do I promise you you'll be in for an awesome time with some  great music (and I imagine some cold beer), which I don't really know how you can beat all that.  To get dialed in on all the band's music, shows and shinanigans you can take a look at BoTo's Facebook page and become a fan or check out their website Borrow Tomorrow Band.

BONUS Video... As luck would have it, whilst checking FB to get the embed codes for the Nashville video and saw this little gem posted as well, happens to be one of my favorites, enjoy.

Picture of the Week

Puppy Wrangler

Nothing says new house like two puppies to help break it in... Dublin is the boy (fawn) and Domino is the girl (brindle (or "tiger stripped" for the layperson))

Video of the Week

Now this is a guy who enjoys a trip to the grocery store...

Techno Shopping
by Faceweb

The Original Octagon

Long before Chuck Liddell stepped into the Octagon to help bring MMA to fame and certainly long before the "Octagon of Doom" there was the original Octagon.

The Chicago Board of Trade....

I say the Original Octagon because at the Board of Trade the trading pits are Octagon in shape to optimize sight lines.  When my folks were in Chicago before we moved we got to go on an all access tour of the Board of Trade, we actually got to go down onto the trading floor amidst the craziness that is the market place.  Nowadays it is a bit calmer than the picture above, technology has taken it's toll on the markets and a lot of the trading activitiy is all done electronically.  However, there are still some markets and commodities the kick it old school and use the traders, that's right the hand signals and shouting aren't just for good movie show, that's really how it's done.  It can best be described as organized chaos.

I was going to type up a rather lengthy dissertation on the process and "paint the picture" if you will.  But then I thought to myself: self, why not just let Mr. Dan Aykroyd explain the process.  Granted, this was in New York, but the general set up of the floor and the process holds true for Chicago.  And also granted that some of it may be "played up a bit" for the movie, but it honestly isn't that far off, as I mentioned computers have taken away some of the floor traders, but based on the volume with the few that were there I imagine this isn't far off from the BoT's hey-day. 

BTW the movie clip is from Trading Places and if you haven't seen it you should be ashamed of yourself.

Still Here

So a quiet week on the blog front, been VERY busy unpacking and just generally tryin to get settled in.  Not a lot going on right now other than boring unpacking, which I'd say we're about 95% done, but it's always that last 5% that is a huge pain in the arse.  We really need to get to the furniture store and Bed Bath & Beyond, I mean, we've already made multiple same day trips to Home Depot and been grocery shopping at Walmart, so by my count we're an all-day shopping trip at Nebraska Furniture Mart away from full on suburban conversion.  I'll try to get back into the "swing of things" this week.  Below is a snow filled picture of the new "crib" as the kids on MTV say it.  And yes to those of you are observant only about 1/3 of the driveway is shoveled.  We have one car, I didn't see the need to exert the extra effort.

Video of the Week

Bittersweet Goodbye

I've had this post sitting in the on deck circle for awhile now because it's a pretty hard one for me to throw out there, it also explains my dropping off the face of the planet as far as the blog is concerned the last few weeks.  For those who aren't aware we moved away from Chicago to Kansas City.  I think my wife described it best by saying "I've never been so happily sad."  I never in a million years would have guessed I would get so attached to the city of Chicago, but alas I did and I can honestly say as someone who is fairly well traveled in the US that it is by far one of my favorite cities.  As hard as it was to leave the city and all of our amazingly great friends there; I am so very excited to be closer to family and to get to reconnect with our amazingly great friends from college.  KC will be a new experience and offers some new challenges including home ownership, re-learning how to drive and resisting homicidal range while shopping in Walmart.

So to my Chicago friends, see ya later.  I don't say goodbye because I intend on visiting Chicago and you are all more than welcome in KC we have pleanty of room and Royals tickets are cheap.

To my KC friends, hello again.  We're gonna need some help getting around and learning what's where, but we're ready to have a good time, especially looking forward to seeing my Royals, tickest are cheap. 

To family, thank you.  We've had more than a little bit of help from family in this little adventure of a move and it is appreciated more than you'll know.