Friendly Competition

A shot up the exterior of the hotel into the blue Texas sky.

Both my wife and I are pretty well-traveled people. The only problem is that we've very rarely traveled together. Our recent anniversary getaway took us to San Antonio, Texas for four days, and during the entire event we tried to "out travel" one another in a sort of friendly competition. Perks from her work within the airline industry got us free round-trip airline tickets, which I immediately upgraded to business class. She got online and found a great deal on a hotel, which I trumped using hotel membership points from recent business travel, getting several nights free. We got the car through a rental company that I also have a relationship with, which was upgraded from an Impala to a GPS-equipped Infiniti G 35. At one point we were walking around San Antonio's River Walk together and came to the conclusion that we had spent about $5.00 for coffee to get here, and that was about it.

Heading back to the Middle East soon... and I thought Texas was hot!

Winging It With .XLS

When I first met my wife she was the poster child for Type B personalities. Early on I asked her what we were going to do on a particular weekend, and she replied, "We'll just wing it". I'll tell you right now that hurt my "have a plan for everything", then-military mind. I had never heard such blasphemous words in my life . Well, despite that fact, I ended up marrying her.

Now here we are several years later, I'm retired from the military and have pretty much gorged myself at the Type B Kool-Aid punch bowl. My wife now comes up with this plan to get away for our anniversary. We're going to put the 4-year old up on "sister-in-law ebay", and head to the airport with no particular plan whatsoever as to where we'll go. We're just going to "wing it" as it were. Perfect.

Last night I catch my wife making an Excel spreadsheet with all of the likely vacation destinations complete with flight numbers, departure times, return flights, and airline load factors. What happened to, "we'll just wing it"?

She claims that the spreadsheet will greatly assist us in our "whim of the moment" vacation. I don't know, but you don't normally here the words "whim" and "spreadsheet" in the same sentence.

More to follow. I'll let you know where we land.

Back From PEI

I’ve been up at Prince Edward Island, Canada for the past ten days attending a piobaireachd course at the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts. The bed and breakfast that I stayed in did not have an Internet connection so hence my prolonged absence from this blog.

Attending a course in classical music for the Highland bagpipe is one of those things that you can do when you’re “retired”. It was great fun and I’m a much better piper for the experience although our Atlanta neighbors might not see it that way.

Prince Edward Island is paradise on Earth, at least for three months out of the year. Cool ocean breezes, swaying pine trees, and picturesque pastoral scenes crisscross the island. Everything about the island is relaxing and low-key. I’m not sure why I was even surprised that my accommodations didn’t have an Internet connection. It’s just in keeping with the “time stood still” atmosphere that permeates the collection of small towns and ancient seaside farm pastures.

Nonetheless I’m back in Atlanta and at it again. More to follow.