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Showing posts from December, 2011

Just rewards

If you've stopped by here once or twice, you know that I travel extensively for my job.  And while that might not mean that I'm traveling across the ocean to Europe or Japan, I'm on the road a LOT. About the only thing that makes it bearable is that I have the opportunity to collect, keep and redeem my frequent flier and hotel patron miles or points.  I suppose that's the saving grace for most road warriors, though I seldom want to travel very far for leisure. That said, I've had some interesting experiences in redeeming some of the points I've accumulated over time with various hotel chains and airlines.  Here's a quick sampling of what I've experienced. DELTA SKYMILES This is probably my favorite, as I fly Delta just about exclusively (where I start in Lexington, Kentucky, Delta is my best option for booking travel to nearly anywhere).  And I have a Delta Skymiles American Express credit card which I use for all of my business-related travel ex

Merry Christmas....we can still say that, can't we?

Well, we're at Christmas 2011 plus 2 days.  Kentucky is experiencing heavy rain, and has been off and on for a few days.  Not exactly conducive to the holiday spirit, but we didn't find it a damper at all.  In fact, my wife and I commented to each other that this may have been the best Christmas we've had in a long time! We're really fortunate, in that we have a healthy and growing family, we each have our health, we're both employed (or, as employed as we wish to be, anyway!), and life's pretty good, overall!  As I mentioned in my last post, we all could stand to stop and think about how well off we are a bit more often. That said, it's been a busy few days, as one would expect.  Despite this, my wife and I managed some recreation by taking in a couple of recently released movies.  Our first choice was "Sherlock Holmes:  A Game of Shadows."  This is the sequel to the popular (if not critically acclaimed) release of a couple of years ago featur

Here and there

Just back from a nice long weekend trip to Colorado, where my wife and I visited our daughter and her family.  The centerpiece of the weekend was our six-year-old granddaughter's performance in "The Nutcracker."  She was one of the Ginger Snaps who emerge from underneath the skirt of a woman during the second act and, from all appearances, performed her role quite well! We were delayed a couple of hours leaving the Denver area Monday, not because of the snow that the area was receiving, but because of an aircraft mechanical issue.  Glad that we weren't traveling today, as that same area will be the recipient of six to nine inches of fresh snow.  Great for the ski resorts that dot the mountains outside of Denver, but not so great for the average commuter and certainly not for air travelers. One of the things I took note of during our extended wait in the Denver airport was a woman who took the opportunity of some downtime (she was apparently flying in from one loca

Tis the season

Well, just about all of the shopping is finished.  Presents are wrapped and placed under our tree.  Christmas cards were addressed and mailed over a week ago.  My sales team is hosting holiday parties for just about all of our major customers during this week and next. Yep, looks like we're just about ready for our annual celebration. This is always a time that tests one's patience and frays one's nerves, if we allow that to happen.  My wife and I always set a budget and nearly always realize there's someone or something that we neglected to identify.  And there's always a relative or two that just swears they're not buying gifts for anyone this year, only to catch us by surprise nearer to the holiday. We're very fortunate that these are "problems" by any stretch of the imagination. Yet in the past few years we've found small ways to share our abundance and add to our holiday joy.  A couple of years ago, I found about a local organizati

Randomness

No coherent theme for today's post (honestly, is there ever, really, ONE theme for this thing?).  So I'll scatter some thoughts in no particular order. Herman Cain, we hardly knew ye.  But, then, I'm a man. President Obama was asked by a reporter about whether the White House has or had a policy of appeasement with regard to terrorists and potential enemies abroad.  Paraphrasing, his response was something along the lines of "You'd need to ask Osama bin Ladin."  Well done, sir. Thank you, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, for signing Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals to a ten year contract worth as much as the GNP of many countries.  My Cincinnati Reds automatically surge to the "contender" list in the National League Central Division as a result.  I don't have the precise statistics handy to add, but I saw Pujols' length-of-career stats against the Reds for his 11 year tenure with the Cardinals.  During that eleven years Albert pla