Tastes Like Chicken

Southwest Airlines sucks – no two bones about it.

This guy has a good entry on the subject: Beefing: Southwest Airlines Sucks

As does this guy: Cattle Lines for Seats

I hate the whole "we don't give seat assignments" shtick. It is the most moronic system I can think of. Basically, in order to get a decent seat, you HAVE to get online within 90 seconds of the 24 hour checkin window, or you are screwed. A few weeks ago, I had to checkin online for my grandparents since they are not really internet savvy, and then I had to pay to remotely print their boarding passes to the nearest Kinkos so they could have something to take to the airport. This is WAY too much of a pain in the ass process.

Evidently there are companies out there that you can pay to checkin for you automatically, effectively shutting out those of us that don't want to do this, so unless you want to pay extra, or you happen to be sitting online monitoring the official time you can plan on getting a crappy seat. I checked in the other day 2 minutes after the 24 hour window and I was the 55th person to checkin. So much for normal folks getting a chance to sit in a decent seat. Doesn't matter if you planned your trip 300 days in advance, you could still be stuck in a middle seat between two fatties.

Then, regardless of what boarding group you are in, you end up standing in line (like cattle, see above) for 90-120 minutes before the flight because you have to get on the plane decently towards the front of your boarding group or you will get no overhead space, and possibly a crappy center seat.

Wake up Southwest. You suck. Change to a normal seat assignment system like everybody else. What are you, a Communist company?

Other gripes – give me some damn food on the flight. And start hiring some decent looking flight attendants.

I HATE SOUTHWEST AIRLINES!!!!!!

And I also hate the passengers. I had to watch some couple pretend to be senile at PVD last week when they cut a dozen people in line to check bags at the Southwest counter and then claim "we didn't see any line." As punishment they should have been strip searched. Here's hoping you lost your house gambling in Vegas.

And then having to sit on the plane and watch some stupid woman stand up and make a show of her fat hurting crying poop machine (otherwise known as a baby) just about made me claw my eyes out. Nobody wants to see your dumb smelly little kid. Don't smile and tell stories about your kid to the moron next to you. It is keeping me awake. Sit down and shut up. And shut your kid up. Or leave it at home. Who the hell brings their kid to Vegas anyway? Here's hoping you lost it in a dice game.

Christy had a conference in Vegas last weekend, so Dan and I went with her to sit around and drink hooch at the pool all day while she had to work. Not a bad deal.

This weekend was all about construction. I got most of the stairs done on the back side of the deck, and our contractor was here both days working on the windows. I have no idea how I'm going to find time to finish the deck, paint the window trim on the outside and inside, and somehow find time to get out in the boat. I wish I was independently wealthy…

I bought three sets of tickets for Sox games as Father's Day gifts this year. One each for Dad M, Dad W, and Grampa.

We did not have good luck at any of the games. Dad M saw the 14-0 loss to Atlanta. Dad W saw the 7-1 loss to Colorado. And Grampa saw the 6-5 loss to Toronto. Not very good. Or maybe it just happens when I sit in Section 30.

In any event, here are a few pics from the game against Toronto w/ Grampa.

I forgot to mention that Christy ran in the John Carson 2-Miler last week. She did very well for her first race. You can read the results here. Though not as hot as playing beach volleyball, I guess I'll take it. Even though I have a moral problem with running when nothing is chasing you.

And she also reviewed our hotel in Alice Springs (read it here), so I am hoping she can parlay this into some sort of job for the Travel Channel like Samantha Brown has, so I can carry her bags.

I managed to finish the stairs on the side of the deck (after pouring two batches of concrete). Now I am up to the long mindless step of screwing in all the boards. I also need to do the stairs on the other side of the deck, put the bug screens in, and finish all the railings. Maybe then I can sit down and have a beer.

Christy and I took these photos while we were down in Tampa Bay last weekend for Uncle Rick's wedding. There are a few more in my Flickr account that aren't posted here, so feel free to browse.

This week I switched our hosting provider from Interland/Web.com (because they suck) to Bluehost (hopefully they don't suck). So most of our website is down for a while. With the switch I also moved us from a Windows/IIS platform (because Microsoft sucks) to Linux/Apache (which definitely does not suck). As such, I'll need to update all my old ASP code to PHP. So that will take a while.

In the meantime, here's a hockey update, since I know you are all cised for the Steamers. Last night was a replay of the 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice. There is a team in our league called CCCP and it really is filled with a bunch of Russians. They had previously beat us 7-6. With our blue jerseys and their red ones, if you could put aside the fact that we are all old and slow, you could sort of imagine Al Michaels calling the game. We ended up winning last night 3-2 in front of a bunch of their fans (which I love doing) and I had probably my best game in goal over the last two years. Our national pride has been restored.

In other news, one of my old frat bros, Wilson Rickerson was on Jeopardy this week. I missed his episode, but evidently he got knocked out. I hear he was still pretty smart and probably did a hell of a lot better than I would have done. You can watch his video bio here. You are right Wilson – Virginia IS for Jeopardy lovers.

Finally, Christy and I booked tickets to Italy next May, so prepare yourself for another travel blog. We'll be stopping in Amsterdam as well for a night on the way home. Should be a good trip. Now I can research how to get all that good Italian wine back home with us. Ciao.