maybe i will lock up my bag and take a walk over there.

the gubmint loves/loved Omni Air International too, I see them and World moving troops many times at DFW in 2008.

Just got email from UA:

Enjoy United First or United Business on us: fly a qualifying roundtrip before July 31, 2009, and we'll deposit two Regional Upgrades in your account, valid for 90 days. Fly another before July 31, and we'll give you two more. You can earn up to six Regional Upgrades.

Code: MPD429

Now on the hunt for the lowest F/C fare.

Edit: Works for Y, B, M, H, Q fares too.

One of the hotels I stay at when I visit the FRA area is the location OIA puts their crews up during their shuttling troops back and forth to the Mid. East. There's always at least two crews there.

... always an interesting crowd.

Follow-up:

I went to the Ikea grand opening, but didn't camp out over night. We got there a few hours before opening and actually just missed the cut-off for free chairs by a few people.

I'm quite happy there is an Ikea here now. I got lots of free Ikea swag (Ikea inflatable ball, Ikea personal fan, Ikea backpack, Ikea frisbee, and even Ikea sunblock) and had a lovely breakfast of swedish meatballs with lingon berries.

The Tampa store is the largest in the state and it is massive. A friend who had been to the Orlando store commented that the Tampa store definitely has more stuff on display. Taking out 20mins for the breakfast, we spent a little over 2 hours just walking through the store from top to bottom and only occasionally stopping to really look at something. On a less crowded day I could be lost in there all day.

Nazi associations aside, I really appreciate that they offer customization of nearly everything you could ever want. Also - stainless steel desk/table tops rock. So you can pick the table top, then the legs, then any drawers you want.. ah, it's bliss. I can see how someone entirely not into design would find it baffling and overkill, but as someone who is constantly actually sawing legs off tables and fitting my own onto them for the right "look" (I'm trained as a scenic designer for stage/film) I really appreciate having options.

Being able to say i want the cabinet to be woodgrain in a deep black wash with grey accents with the upper portion shelves and the lower portion drawers with glass faces and the shelves with glass doors with a silver frame with frosted glass with built in lighting and stylized inset pulls is my dream come true. Oh yeah, and put it on chrome castors.

Squee!

I don't like Ikea. It's the WalMart of furniture stores and everything looks like it would break if I sit on it. I need sturdy looking furniture simply for peace of mind. :o:rolleyes::rolleyes:

And I don't mean to be a jerk and poop on your story or whatever. :o

Is this the first poop reference of the day? :eek:

More is more, amirite? :rolleyes:

I've been on two of their 10 DC-10-30's.

OIA is the source of many, many excellent pilot PA announcements. The pilot who lamented the lack of alcohol on the flight and said that he "hopes we have plenty to serve everyone coming home on the westbound" (:D) comes to mind, as does the one who pointed out Baghdad as we flew over. A lot of those guys that fly the rotators are former military pilots themselves, and the crew from front to back on all of my rotator flight segments were universally awesome. The only thing they couldn't handle was that which was out of their control...no one at OIA bothered to research what would happen when almost 300 people all opened their bags of cheddar potato chips within a few minutes of each other. That mixed with sweat is one of the smells in life that I've worked hard to block out.

That might be an unhealthy excitement level over furniture. I don't even think the HGTV people get that nuts. :p

The interesting bit is that saying something is "Walmart" usually refers to a lowest-common-denominator level of blandness and complete lack of individuality. Most furnitures in America fit that perfectly. Everything looks the same, your options are nil, and you get something that 5 million other people own which was mass produced.

Look at the legs of your chairs and the feet of your larger furniture pieces. How many of them are identical or nearly identical? They're built from stock pieces that vary from company to company to give some semblance of individualism.

I know it's not something most people notice (not everyone has sat through upper level courses on decor and architectural details), but the fact that I can choose the feet of my furniture hearkens back to the time of real furniture makers and quality pieces.

I watch those shows and think:

A) I could do that. (For the general design shows)

or

B) I totally could win that. (For the design competition shows)

I'm trying to figure out why anyone would WANT to say that.:p



Missed it by that much. I had no idea there were rules for that sort of thing.:D

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Omnia: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

my computer plug is no longer working. so much for recharging before the redeye :(

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Fiancee is at her second interview as a result of her surprise interview last night...the wait begins as to whether or not she gets home in enough time to make cooking feasible.

Cook and keep it warm for her. That is what a good house husband does. I've learned a lot in my working from home days over the past 16 months. :p


I also just realized that I have this weekend free rather than being booked up. I'm considering a same-day run to MEX or possibly the west coast to visit a friend. What is the buy-up cost to E+ on VX? I'd like to try it, I think...

Tell her to pick up something good on the way home.