Friday Five

The Excuse

None needed. W00t! I typed this out on Friday, I really did. I just forgot to post it.

The Week

You need be careful about getting excited when you see cities on your schedule sometimes. On my schedule it said “Chicago”. In reality I was in Schaumburg, IL, which is about 30 miles east of downtown Chicago. Which also meant that there was really no chance of getting downtown to explore unfortunately. You win some, you lose some I guess.

If anyone’s interested, Schaumburg, IL is a suburb. And really, little else needs to be added. There’s an Applebee’s, there’s an Olive Garden, there’s a <fill in chain here>. The one fantastic thing is there’s a White Castle. I do love White Castle.

The Exercise

You’d think at some point I’d either start working out again or get rid of this section. You’d think.

The Restaurant

Not really a restaurant, but I gotta give props to White Castle. Yeah, they do terrible things to your digestive track.^[1] Yeah, they’re terrible for you. Yeah, they’re little more that grease spots on a bun, summed up by the following story:

Driving back to Duluth from the Cities. We stop at White Castle, a place Karin had never been to before. We’re cruising along and Karin is being the perfect copilot – I finish one and she hands me the next. That is until suddenly she stopped. Concerned about what was happening I glanced at Karin who had opened the burger in her hand and was looking down at the floorboard.

Me: What happened? (may have been panic in my voice)
Karin: I think I dropped the patty.
Me (laughing): No, it’s still there.

But boy howdy do I love White Castle.

The Travel Note

I’m glad to see Continental starting to offer DirecTV on their flights. Now if only they’ll add internet access.

The Five

When I boarded the plane for home tonight I found out that Continental is no longer offering pillows and blankets on their flights. Below are five thoughts for the airlines.

1. If you’re going to charge me for something, make it for something above and beyond the normal expectations for a flight. If you’re going to charge me for a meal make it decent food. I don’t mind paying for DirecTV access, but I do mind for checking my bag.
2. I’ve heard that adding RFID tags to enhance baggage scanning and limit lost bags would cost about $1 per bag. If you’re charging $15ish for the bag, toss in the RFID tag.
3. Pillows and blankets can’t cost that much. If you’re trying to save weight pull the SkyMall catalogs.^[2]
4. Everyone should move to electronic boarding passes. I love the convenience of using my phone as my boarding pass, as well as the added security.
5. Be realistic about delays. If the equipment isn’t going to land until 40 minutes before it’s scheduled to take off again, it’s not leaving on time.

^[1] Worst flight ever was when I had 8 slyders before boarding.
^[2] Unless, of course, you’re Jonathan Coulton.