The Random Thoughts Review

Woke up on Saturday morning around 7:30. Brian was planning to shower first, so I looked outside and saw that it was really foggy. Mariya got a couple of donuts from the front complimentary breakfast, and they were pretty poor stuff. She also grabbed several packets of jelly and jam. Handy for the PB&J sandwiches at the condo. I went and checked out the breakfast and was similarly unimpressed (but picked up a few more packets). As a group, we decided to to go to the McDonalds across the street for some quick breakfast food. We wanted to be out of Hays by around 9:00am. That would put us in Denver by about 1pm. I got us checked out of the hotel, and Mariya and myself walked across the street to the McDonalds, and Brian drove. It was a neat McDonalds. There was a fireplace there that was quite nice. It was about 34 degrees, so it wasn’t real cold, but the fireplace was neat. The Truman State basketball team was eating at the McDonalds also. Brian was taller than most of them.

Brian drove the first leg. It was really windy. We stopped in Limon for gas and a bathroom break, and I took over the driving. It was too cloudy to see the mountains. Normally, I can see the mountains (Pike’s Peak, in particular) around Limon. It didn’t work out this time, though. I was sorely disappointed. Meanwhile, I had tried to call King Soopers to get the new price on the lift tickets. Before the trip, Breckenridge had “holiday pricing” in effect. This meant that, even through King Soopers, and 4 of 6 day pass was going to cost $332. That was a lot of money. The non-holiday pricing started on January 4th, though, which was Sunday, the first day that we had planned to be on the lift. When I called, they didn’t know what the cheaper pricing would be. They wouldn’t know until the computers were updated. They didn’t know if the price would go up or down. Basically, they didn’t know anything that we wanted to know. I had been calling the King Soopers in Youngfield as well as the King Soopers on 104th avenue, near where the Cinzzetti’s is at. We drove past a lot of really strange looking trees between Limon and Denver. Colorado has about 450 miles on i70, and Limon is approximately at the 350. Denver is around the 275. About the time we got to the 305, Mariya had estimated that she was an hour away from where she needed to pick up the skis. So, she called the lady and said she’d be there in an hour. The lady had just left the house, but her daughter was supposed to be at home. We drove into Denver and took the exit for i270 (I think it was around exit 279). That took us northwest to where it turned into highway 36. 18 miles on highway 36 and we were at the McCaslin exit where we needed to get off. We stayed on that road for a while, and then turned onto another road. It was supposed to be 0.6 miles on that road. Mariya had the directions for leaving that place and going back to Cinzzetti’s, so she was translating them in reverse. We drove 0.6 miles… nothing… We drove on, and I finally got to a point where I was confident that we would have seen it if were going to. So, I fired up google maps on my phone and activated the GPS. We had passed where it was supposed to be, so we headed back. Long story short, the exit to the place was only visible on traffic heading in that direction. A median prevented us from seeing the turnoff from the other direction. So, we got into the subdivision and quickly found the house we were looking for. Mariya and myself went inside. Mariya tried on the boots and thought they would be good enough. I then went back outside and she took care of the rest of the transaction. Then, we were off to the Cinzzetti’s area.

We got back on 36 for a while and got off at 104th avenue, but we were about 5 miles from where we needed to be. So, we drove through some nice new subdivisions. We saw some absolutely huge houses. Probably 4 stories high. Right on the golf course, and a nice view of the mountains, which we couldn’t see because of the clouds. We had planned to go to a King Soopers (that was east of Cinzzetti’s) first, because we wanted the dinner menu at Cinzzettis’, which didn’t start until 3pm. We had made it into town about 1:30. We happened to see another King Soopers west of Cinzzetti’s so we hopped in there to check out the lift ticket situation. Finally we got some useful information. The nice lady at the guest services area told us that prices are updated at 5:01pm. Since it was about 2:15, we knew that we had a while to wait. We decided to go ahead and get our food that we knew we would need. We got various things (shopping bill to follow). Then, we decided to go to Cinzzetti’s! I found the place pretty quick, and we made our way in.

The food at Cinzzetti’s doesn’t change very often. Mariya hadn’t been there, and I think she liked it. We all liked it. The food is good, but it is buffet style ($15.99 for weekend supper). There’s just no getting away from that. They have certain dishes that they have all the time, and those have their names painted on the sneeze guards. It’s good, though. They have nice desserts. They advertise 16 flavors of gelato, but they don’t actually have any gelato. It’s all ice cream. I had some cinnamon ice cream, which was good. Mariya had some tiramisu and declared it OK. The pizza was good. I liked the mozzarella sticks, but Mariya didn’t care for them. They didn’t have chicken parmesan, but they had eggplant. I got some chicken (honey, or something like that) but it wasn’t anything special. Mariya and myself got water. Brian got a soda ($1.89).

I had a couple of plates of food, and decided to get some dessert before my tummy got full. I didn’t end up getting any real food after that. We all managed to fill up, and then we were ready to head out. This was around 4:45, probably.

We hopped in the car, and I headed to the King Soopers/gas station in western Denver. We got to the gas station around 5, so we knew we would be in good shape for the King Soopers ticket timing. After gas, I headed over to King Soopers. I took the wrong turn and ended up behind a building a little ways down from the King Soopers. After crossing under the interstate, I should have turned left quickly and headed back. But, I didn’t. So, live and learn. We made it into the King Soopers parking lot and found our way to the service desk (after initially going in the wrong door). They had a computer kiosk where we could look up ticket prices. The 4 of 6 tickets were $292! That was $40 less than they had been before 5pm. So, Brian and myself got 4of6, and Mariya got a 3of5 (since she was going to have a day taking lessons). When we left King Soopers, Brian decided to drive. We headed into the front range, and the weather stayed pretty good. Back around Limon, we had put in some predictions on when we would first see snow. I had guessed Denver. Brian had guessed the tunnel, and Mariya had guessed about 5 miles before the tunnel. By “snow”, we meant snow on the side of the road. We didn’t have snow in Denver. We actually hit snow about 10 miles before the tunnel. The roads stayed excellent, though. At the tunnel, we could see the groomers working on the Loveland ski area. We made it through the tunnel, and the roads actually stayed quite nice! We came down the other side and made it to our turnoff at Frisco. This was Mariya’s first good chance to see a nice Mountain town all decked out for skiers. There were lights everywhere, and it was quite pretty. Then we headed further south and made it into Breckenridge. We went through several lights and finally made it to the one we wanted. We headed up Park Avenue and worked our way around to the Ski Hill condos. We were in building 2 (Boreas) and we quickly found it. Building 1 (American) is closest to Ski Hill Road, and it works its way back from there. When we were in Ski Hill 36, we were in Building XX (4?).

I grabbed a load of luggage and headed to 14. After punching in the code, the door opened, and we were in our condo. The condo is definitely different than the other condos we have stayed in. It has pergo flooring in the main dining room/living room area, carpet in the bedrooms, and ceramic tile everywhere else. The unit has supposedly been remodeled recently. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The master bedroom has the bathroom attached to it (no doors in between). It has a large shower with dueling showerheads and dual sinks. The toilet is off on the side with no door or anything. The second bathroom has a separate room for the shower/toilet, and the floors have radiant floor heat in both bathrooms. The kitsch is western/colorado/skier themed.

When we got all of our luggage in the condo, we decided to drive to the ski shop. It isn’t very far from the condo, but it is handy to have the car to transport the skis. We got in there. I got my skis waxed ($8), Mariya got her skis tuned for a beginning skier and waxed ($15), and Brian got himself set up for a set of demo skis. They looked up the price on them, and the skis alone (no bindings, boots, or poles) were over $1,000. They suggested that I get my skis edged as well, but that would have taken until the next morning, and I wanted to be on the slopes by then. We loaded up the skis and headed back to the condo.

It was quite cold during the evening. It was supposed to be down around zero degrees, and it was probably a little bit colder than that.

Hello, fellow wannabe-travelers.

Kirby here, with a travel blog.

We are in our hotel room in Hays, Kansas. It has been a good day. I got up this morning at 7:08am. I had planned to get up around 6:50, but, for whatever reason, I didn’t hear the alarm, and slept until 7:08. I had spent last night getting everything packed for the trip, and didn’t get to bed until around 11:30 or so. But that’s the way it goes.

Anyway, back to today. Got up at 7:08. Mariya had said she was going to leave town at 7:00, and I was planning to leave around 7:45. We were going to meet up in Springfield, IL, and then drive down to St Louis together. So, right off, I was 18 minutes behind. Not a good way to start the day. I started the morning process. Mariya called and left a message on my machine while I was in the shower. I then started trying to eat a little cereal for breakfast, and she called again. She had been on her way for a little while, and was still planning to get over there around 8:30 and be in good shape. I got everything ready that I needed to get ready, and left the house around 8 o’clock. I had to run by the bank and get some cash, so, after doing that, I was heading west. On the way over to Springfield, I called Larry. Sadly, I woke him up. He had been up all night long driving between Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. He had fallen asleep 30 minutes earlier, and I woke him up. I felt so bad. Oh well. Upon talking to Mariya… she had stopped at a Wal-Greens, and they had Christmas stuff 90% off. She had found a couple of things, and was headed to the Meijers to order a cake for next weekend. I got the interstate exit for Staybridge Suites, where we were meeting, and tried to call her. I was running low on gas (didn’t know if I would make it to Missouri or not) and decided to get a little bit of gas there (at the Meijer gas station). I got 2 gallons, and paid 1.45/gallon. In Missouri, Brian had told me he had paid 1.24/gallon. So, I got just enough to keep the car running. I went on over to the parking lot where we were meeting. Mariya was still ordering the cake. She finally arrived. She lost one of the magnets on her car! She thought I was kidding when I said it was gone. Oh well. Nothing to be done about it at that point. We transferred her luggage to my car, and headed out. We were 35 minutes behind schedule. We were planning to meet at 9:15, and it was 9:50. So, I had Mariya call Brian on my phone (I had the bluetooth headset on) and I told him that we were running late. We then headed south.

We got to Brian’s place around 11:31. I grabbed some pillows that we were leaving there; Mariya grabbed some clothes that she will need next weekend, and we went up to Brian’s. He came down and we loaded his Mitsubishi Outlander. We tried to get the skis to lay flat, but they just wouldn’t do it. They had to be angled. Everyone’s luggage loaded nicely. We had originally thought that we would go to Columbia or something for lunch. But, since we were running late, we decided to go ahead and eat there. We decided upon Arby’s. Brian had the french dip combo, Mariya had the Philly Steak combo, and I had the Turkey club combo. They were $5 apiece. The bathrooms there had squeeze soap.

After that, we headed west on i70. The miles flew by. We saw the Calloway Nuclear Plant off to the south. We drove through Kansas City, and stopped at a QT not very far into Kansas. We gassed up, and we used our QT glasses to get refills, and Mariya started driving. (Brian had been driving before). We made it through the toll way ($2.15 charge) and then through Topeka. Next stop was Salina, where we ate at Bayards. Bayards is this little cafe right next to the truck stops at the 252 exit. They have a nifty garden salad that is made up of 14 different garden vegetables. It seemed to have carrots, broccoli, spinach?, onions, and a bunch of other stuff. Brian got the dinner steak ($8.49) (which he said was ok), and we got a Combination appetizer (fried: mushrooms, zuchini, cheese sticks, chicken nuggets, and onion rings). It was $5.99 and not really worth it. We got a meat loaf plate ($7.99). The meatloaf wasn’t all that good. We got 2 garden salads and a baked potato with ours. Brian got a garden salad, baked potato, and corn with his. The dinner rolls were good that came with the food.

After that, we continued heading west. (Mariya was still driving). We had the choice of driving to Hays (exit 159) or Colby (exit 53). We ran the numbers of what we needed to do the next day and ended up deciding to stop in Hays. So, we had to find a hotel. We looked at some guidebooks and found an Econolodge that was $44.99. I called them up on the cell phone. They had rooms available, and the rates seemed good. So, we decided to just stop there. At that point, we were only about 50 minutes away, so I didn’t even bother calling back and reserving the room.

We passed the statue of the road runner right outside of Hays, and then made it to exit 159. We found the econo lodge. We gassed up before the lodge, and then went to the hotel. I got the room (she told me the rate was $49.99. I mentioned the phone. She “remembered” and we got it for $44.99. This ended up being a little more than $50 after tax. The free continental breakfast has donuts, toast, orange juice, and coffee. We have free wireless internet (user: econo, pass: lodge).

A good time is being had by all. We had an amazing sunset tonight, and Mariya has been talking a lot about how easy skiing will be. I hope she is right.

You know.. Amazon impresses me. They really actually have a pretty good system in place to suck people in and get them to spend money.

I don’t know if you did any Christmas shopping at amazon or not, but, as has been the case for years now, they have wicked fast shipping for their free shipping stuff. Each year it seems to get a little better. This year, I think you had to have your order placed by Dec 17 to get free shipping. That’s not bad! One guy I knew placed an order on the 17th, with free shipping, and had the package in-hand on the 19th.

Now, they’ve compiled a list of New Year’s resolutions that they know that people often make, and they are selling products based on that. Pretty sneaky. The capitalist side of me really enjoys seeing companies that “get it”. Companies that think ahead and say, “You know.. After New Year’s there’s a legitimate marketing opportunity for us. Let’s take it.” I know that Amazon isn’t alone… But I saw this and happened to think back to the various things that Amazon has done. What about you? Can you think of other companies that have a consistent track record of not messing up?

On the hunt to have some auto work done (brakes, to be specific), I asked around for some suggestions on places to use, and places to avoid in Champaign Urbana. Here, for your viewing pleasure, the results of a simple, informal poll:

• SpeedLube on University (near.. 3rd or so) gets a thumbs up for being fast and cheap.
• Midas on University gets a thumbs up for free labor on a minor repair
• O’Brien gets a solid thumbs down.
• The place on Cunningham north of University (Meineke?) gets a thumbs down for upselling.
• Ron’s in northeast Urbana gets a double thumbs up
• Myler Automotive (off of Parkland Ct) gets a thumbs up from two different people
• Beaumont Alignment, Gasoline Alley gets a thumbs up
• Peter B’s gets a thumbs-up from one person, and another has heard good things about them
• Good things have been heard about the Brake Shop (on Springfield) but no personal experience.

It looks like they’ve finally found Steve Fossett’s plane, and this news caused me to go back and look at the pictures that I took of him at Oshkosh for the EAA Airventure a few years back.

He had just flown around the world, non stop, and they were showing off the aircraft that he used. He really was quite a guy, with some truly amazing accomplishments. If you haven’t read up on him, you should do so. For your viewing pleasure, the pictures from EAA Airventure:

You can click on any picture to get larger versions.

Godspeed, Steve.

Official Google Blog: Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign

Google, you disappoint me. And I don’t know that I’ve ever actually said that before.

I fear that you are starting to channel your inner movie star. I fear that you are starting to think that, because you are famous, that you need to make a political statement about your stance on political issues. This disappoints me. You aren’t a PAC. You are an internet company.

I’m not going to discuss what I think about the stance you have taken. Whether you come down on the side of gay marriage, or the side against gay marriage isn’t relevant to this blog post. I’m just disappointed that you felt that, as a company, you needed to choose a side in an issue that isn’t relevant to your business.

Focus… Focus.. Eye on the prize, G.. Eye on the prize.

What percentage of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups end up with double wrappers?

Don’t act innocent. You know exactly what I’m talking about. So, what do you think? Give me a number..

Back it up with a link if you’re really cool.

There are several things that science current sees as a “best guess” that don’t make much sense to me, from a cause & effect standpoint..

The Inflationary Period. Shortly after the big bang, the universe expanded rapidly and then, for no apparent reason that anyone has given me, stopped expanding so rapidly. Why did this occur? Well, that’s the wrong question. The right question is, “What magical event do we need to have to make the big bang numbers work out?” They don’t work without this inflationary period.
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