Actually, this still won't get me to elite. Of the 33K miles, ~12K are on a reward ticket, 10K on CO and 10K on UA. That will leave me with ~15K EQMs this year. If I can get the S. America trip that would put me over 21K and make it a quick west coast trip to silver. If not, I'm looking at either another ANC run late in the year or a status free life. I was looking at possible travel to GCM as helping put me over the top, but CO only flies there on Saturdays after Labor Day which means I'll have to use DL and hope for non insULT fares on those trips. And that is still iffy.

Anyone else watching Olympic swimming these days? With the way world records are falling - and falling hard - I can't help but wonder if they built the pool a couple inches short or something. The number of world records that have been broken during the games thus far is astounding. The 4x100m free relay record dropped 4 seconds yesterday. That's ridiculous.

Yeah I've been watching it tonight. During the race they just showed that Phelps set a record in earlier today he was way ahead of everyone else the entire time. It was incredible.

I cleared but have to tell you that after the three or maybe it was four glasses of champagne I had in the P Club, it didn't matter, but heck I was happy to be up front :) I slept the entire way so missed all the good F stuff ;)

Holy guacamole! I hope that's a few weeks and you have plenty of planning time. It's tough to do that balance. I still don't have it figured out. We both travel though my travel is 4 to 1 to his and it's still awful. Throw in delayed flights (thank you EWR) and thank God for a good nanny (let me know when you get to that stage!). Have you figured out about what she likes for presents when you travel? ^ to the website. Looking forward to some wedding pics.

^ to WA - take the wife

Um, so I guess that's a bad thing.
Uncongratulations.

watching in amazement. All I can say is wow. Step bagldy desperately wants to go to the 2012 games and I said no worries, just tell your mom to get you a passport :rolleyes:

Swimming is one of the sports I look forward to when it is Olymipics time! It is so irritating right now, bc all I have been able to do is read about the results after the fact online. They (Lima olympic coverage) only show 'futbol'. So I have a couple days left until I will be able to watch my swimming on NBC.

In other Olympics news, I learned last night that such a thing as synchronized diving exists. I was told this and my mouth just hung open like a mental patient. Golf is not an Olympic sport and double-diving is?

In the men's relay 2 nights ago, even the 4th place team came in under the old WR.
My girlfriend was a swimmer when she was younger , and I asked her the same question.
She told me that it is a combination of new gear and training methods, more weightraining, yoga and now some of them wear a different cap. The goggle strap is under the cap, it used to be over the cap.
I don't know how much of that is true or not . ETA: NBC's swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines on the Today show was just asked the same question about the WRs breaking, he said the swisuit technology, the Cube's technology in the pool reduces drag and the athletes are stronger.

Also in different Olympic news , this article on Yahoo , talks about Yao Ming. It mentions he sometimes he flies in the middle seat in Y thanks to his country no selecting good seats for him. Maybe a 1MM can nominate him for at least CO Silver .

I would really like to go to 2010 or 2012, as they are two of my favorite cities. But, I'd rather spend my limited time and money for travel at this stage of life on fun stuff like girlfriend away weekends and quickie golf trips.

Both of the cities for 2010 and 2012 are perfect for weekend trips. I did the Atlanta games as a weekend. Went up on Thursday before the opening ceremonies to enjoy the energy in the city, had Thursday night - Sunday to party and go to some events and then came home Sunday night. It was easier since I was a one hour ASA flight from home, but both YVR and LON can be done in a (long) weekend if you want to. I wouldn't try to do China or Sydney for a long weekend for fun - too much travel time involved - but the others should be feasible.

My ATL Olympics experience had two great aspects to it. The first is that my cousin who lived in Atlanta managed to find a manufacturer of 4" x 6" american flags on a little wooden stick. He bought them bu the thousands and we sold them for a dollar each. Made more money than I could drink off at the Atlanta bars. The second is that a friend of mine won a silver medal in swimming the night I was there to watch. I bought a ticket for the finals session from a guy leaving the prelims session that morning for $50. The seat was on the aisle, about 25 rows up, at the start/finish line. Everyone around me had paid hundreds of dollars for their seats. They were also all generally from the same area as me and we had some connections from my brief stint as a swimmer when I was younger. I got to live vicariously through my friend winning a medal and celebrate that the rest of the night. It was a n unbelievable rush.

Thanks! ^

The schedule is showing as needing to be there within the next two weeks.

She doesn't mind the SA trip because it's two weeks there, three weeks back home, then back, etc. That's manageable.

Australia is a different beast and without details from my boss about travel and living arrangements, I am weary of jumping into a travel black hole, something that is all too common here.

A slow day at work and a slow day in The Box. I'm dying here! :(