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Boss Offers to Help Me Reach Elite Status

Yesterday my boss suggested a plan to help me reach elite status. At first I thought he might be joking because he brought it up in a laughing manner, but as he explained it there's a real there there.

His idea was that our AE (account executive) counterparts often seek to "protect" us from having to travel as we head into the end of the year. Except those of us who do travel as part of our jobs are concerned about reaching elite status. And as we head toward the end of the year we're keeping an eye on how many more miles/points/trips we need to qualify. He talked about getting his team together to discuss how much more each person needed for the year then telling the AEs, "Hey, you need someone to help you cover a meeting? Reach out to Chris, he needs 4 more trips this year for elite status!"

"I need just 1 more trip, possibly 2 if it's a short/cheap one," I said right away. I needed no delay to think about it because I've already been tracking it. I explained to my boss how I created a spreadsheet years ago, modeling it kind of like a sales forecast, to track progress toward elite status.

I also told him about how hardcore frequent flyers do Mileage Runs (MRs)— trips they take purely to earn status. I did an MR, just once, years ago.

I gently pushed back, though, on the idea of telling AEs to help book work trips for us. I did that because I don't want to create or perpetuate a notion that we're arranging business trips for personal benefit. I do push for meeting customers and prospects face-to-face, by traveling to visit them, instead of meeting via videoconference. I do that because it makes business sense, because it's more valuable for the company, not because it's a boondoggle or for status bragging rights.

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200 Miles Roundtrip for Sheep

Today we drove 200 miles round trip, out to the town of Dixon, California, for... Lambtown! It's a weekend fair of all things... sheep.

Lambtown sheep fair in Dixon, California (Oct 2025)

Lambtown sheep fair in Dixon, California (Oct 2025)

Up front there were vendors pavilions full of yarn spinners selling yarn, spinners, and knitting tools. Out back, where we spent most of our time, were county fair type demonstrations of sheep dogs and sheep shearing.

The sheep dog demonstrations were put on by an organization called Redwood Empire Sheep Dog Association. As one of the speakers described it, RESDA was founded when a few sheep herders were sitting around on a slow day and one said to the other, "My dog's better than your dog."

And the second sheep herder fired back, "Oh, yeah? Prove it."

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One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila... Four?

Last night I was inspired after having dinner out with Hawk at an old-favorite Mexican restaurant, where Arturito has been mixing margaritas for longer than the 28 years we've been customers, to keep the party going once I got home. I didn't feel like mixing margaritas just to have one drink, though, so instead I decided to enjoy some tequila straight. But which tequila? It turns out I have at least 8 different bottles in my cabinet. That can only mean one thing.... Time for a tequila taste test!

To keep it simple I limited my taste test to 3 tequilas, all reposados. Tequilas are categorized by how long they've been aged in oak casks. The youngest, blanco, are aged from not at all up to 2 months. Reposado, which in Spanish literally means "rested", is aged from 2 months up to 1 year. Añejo is aged 1-3 years. I chose reposado because it's generally at the lower end of what's enjoyable to drink straight. Plus, I have a lot of reposados. And within that age category I chose 3 of my cheaper examples. ...Well, two cheaper examples and one mid-priced one. I wanted to see if the slightly more expensive bottle is worth it.

Taste testing a few reposado tequilas from my cabinet (Oct 2025)

Taste testing a few reposado tequilas from my cabinet (Oct 2025)

The three tequilas I put head-to-head are Tres Agaves, Espolón, and Casamigos. Note, none of these are actually cheap tequilas. There is no cheap tequila in my house. There's not even any Jose Cuervo, which is only "tequila" by the barest technical definition (51% distilled from blue agave) anyway.

Tres Amigos is the slightly more aged version of Tres Amigos blanco I like as a basic tequila for mixing margaritas. The blanco is actually good enough to sip straight. The reposado tastes not much different from it. Yes, it's got some ageing, so it blends in some of the caramel, vanilla, and spice flavors absorbed from the oak; but these are very light compared to the other reposados here. Instead it's got more of the pure taste of its agave. Probably this one is aged toward the younger end of the 2-12 months range.

Espolón is a good middle-shelf tequila reposado. It's got a bit more of the aged flavors than Tres Amigos but they're still not overpowering. The pure flavor of the agave shines through. Probably it's given just a bit longer in the oak casks. While both this and the Tres Amigos are okay for sipping straight they're not quite to the level that I would say enjoyable sipping straight.

Casamigos is a brand launched by actor George Clooney. Some people snivel that it's priced and bought all because of his star power rather than on its own merits. But here the Casamigos reposado was a clearly richer tequila than the two I tasted it against. The flavors of vanilla and caramel come through in genuinely warm fashion, contrasting nicely with the sharp flavor of the agave which is pleasantly softened here. Years ago I briefly made Casamigos Añejo my call drink at bars when I wanted to treat myself. Then I bought a three-pack of Casamigos tequilas to try the different age expressions and found I enjoyed the reposado, which is typically a bit cheaper, as much as the añejo.

Based on this tasting Casamigos was the one I poured a full shot of to drink. ...Wait, how could you drink 4 shots? you might wonder. Isn't it... One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor?

The reason it's not is that I didn't pour full shots for tasting. I poured short pours. Those shot glasses in the pic above that look empty? They're not empty. Those are the tastings I poured! They're about 10ml each. That's how I can get through a tasting of half a dozen or more liquors. People who come to my parties and scoff at those of us drinking in the kitchen think we're all drunkards because we're tasting, like, 6 or 8 bottles. This is how I help my guests have a great time while staying sober enough to drive home afterward.

And because I'm not driving home— the #2 benefit of drinking at home instead of at restaurants and bars— I enjoyed another full shot after drinking the last shot from that now-empty Casamigos bottle. For my night cap I went up another level to añejo and enjoyed a drink of Espolón añejo. I'll have to do a taste comparison with that another time.

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The Weather is Cool, the Hot Tub is Warm

I noted ten days ago that the observed season of autumn had started. ...The observation being, "Hey, it's raining!" 🤣 Other observations I use to mark the start of fall and winter include "It's cool enough to turn the heat on in the house" and "It's cool enough that I prefer to wear trousers instead of shorts during the day." We're on the cusp of those markers now.

Yesterday evening I changed into pants to go out to dinner... not because I felt I needed to for fashion's sake but because I wanted to for comfort's sake in the cooling evening weather. Though as long as I was wearing pants for weather I classed it up to be fashionable by wearing a natty sport coat with an artfully folded pocket square.

Overnight it got cool enough outside that the temperature downstairs in our house was a brisk 66° (19° C) when I got up this morning. Up in the bedroom is was warmer, at about 68°. I hadn't actually felt cold overnight even though all I slept with was a light sheet and I'd left the bedroom balcony door open a few inches. Maybe chalk that up to reading articles recently that the ideal temperature for sleep is cooler than most people think. at 64-68°. (I'm glad my autonomous nervous system read those articles, too. 🤣)

Enjoying the hot tub on a cool fall morning (Oct 2025)

Enjoying the hot tub on a cool fall morning (Oct 2025)

As I got up and started puttering around the house with my normal breakfast routine it occurred to me that a soak in the hot tub would be a great way to shrug off the slight chill of the morning. I pulled on a light jacket for the walk out to the pool area. The jacket turned out not to be necessary as the air didn't feel that cold. Despite it being only about 62° the sun shine and lack of breeze made it feel warmer.

And once I got into the hot tub... well, all the thoughts of chilliness went away. Daaang, that water felt hot this morning! It was so hot it was bracing at first. Any weather is pool weather when the water's 103°!

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Companion Pass Renewed, Working on A-List Preferred

I've been tracking my progress toward elite status with Southwest Airlines this year. I've actually been tracking it every year for the past several years. And when I say track I mean I keep a spreadsheet of my progress, both to see how close I am and to plan ahead for changes I need to make to my bookings and credit card spend to ensure I reach my goals.

Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

I re-qualified for Southwest's Companion Pass a month ago. It's one of two different types of elite status they offer. CP is different from anything offered by any other airline I've seen (and here I'm talking literally dozens of airlines) in that it permit my designated companion to fly with me on any flight I fly, virtually for free, for the remainder of the year and all of the next. Hawk has been my bird-panion for several years, and we've taken advantage of it dozens of times.

You might wonder, "Which fly were you on when you passed the CP threshold?" Actually it wasn't any flight but a fringe benefit of my Southwest credit card that put me over the threshold of 135,000 CPQPs (Companion Pass Qualifying Points). Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Card

Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Card

A big boost in getting to those 135k CPQPs also came earlier in the year from the credit card. In all more than 100k of my CPQPs have come from the credit card, driven by spending on the card plus the lucrative signup bonus.

I mentioned above there are two types of elite status with Southwest. The other elite track is their A-List/A-List Preferred status. That's a more typical elite program, where the benefits are things like early boarding, free inflight wifi, and a multiplier on redeemable points earned.

I've been A-List Preferred (or A+ as we call it for short) the past several years and it's been a big deal for me. The 2x points multiplier is nice, though right now I have way over 600,000 redeemable points and no plan for how to burn them down. More important than those points is an automatic boarding number early in the boarding order. Folks who fly Southwest more than once every 5 years will know what I mean when I say I get a number like A17 on pretty much every flight... for free.

The meaning of A+ will change early next year when Southwest replaces its no-assigned-seats seating policy with assigned seats for everyone. Then boarding order won't be critical for getting a primo seat. Instead, being able to pick a primo seat at booking time will be where it's at. And that will be a benefit of A+ status! While I'm not happy with the assigned-seating changes— the current system works well for me— I figure having A+ for next year will be crucial to making the new system work for me as well.

So far I'm still short of renewing A+. I've got a bit shy of 53,000 TQPs out of the 70,000 TQPs required. Yes, these TQPs (Tier Qualifying Points) are different from the CPQPs that qualify for Companion Pass! I've got a plan for how to hit the 70k mark this year.... Actually I've got two plans. But both of them take some work. The thing is my forecast— remember I said above that's one of the main reasons I track all this on a spreadsheet?—has me coming in at 67,500 TQPs for the year based on my remaining anticipated flying and credit card spend in 2025. I need to figure out an additional 2,500 TQPs of activity to hit the mark. I hope a quick business trip or two will fill the gap, but business travel has turned sluggish with customers preferring to meet remotely, rather than face-to-face in the office, most of the time.

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Quest to Earn Miles... and USE Them

One of the credit cards I've opened a new account with this year is the United MileagePlus Quest card by Chase. The Quest is a new-ish offering from Chase and United Airlines. It's one of those semi-premium offerings the banks have been coming out with in the past year or so. Semi-premium, of course, means a higher annual fee (AF) in exchange for elevated benefits... benefits that are designed to look attractive while the credit card companies purposefully make them hard for customers to use. I weighed the benefits of this card carefully before deciding it was worth it to take the plunge of signing up— a plunge that cost $350 upfront for the AF. Then today I discovered a minor but intriguing benefit I hadn't noticed before.

The United MileagePlus Quest card by Chase

The benefit I hadn't noticed before is Pay Yourself Back (PYB). Lots of cards nowadays have PYB schemes. The idea is you spend some of the points you've earned with the card to credit back the cost of purchases you've charged on the card.

On cashback cards this is using some of your cashback points to pay off all or part of your balance. You might think of it as removing the middleman: instead of getting cash back, depositing in your checking account, then paying your credit card bill, you're paying part of the bill directly.

With a co-branded airline or hotel card, the points you're paying with aren't cashback. They're the miles or points you earned in the airline/hotel loyalty program. Normally you'd use them only for buying directly from that loyalty partner. Thus it's intriguing to find opportunities to turn them into cash.

With the Quest PYB program I can't just pay any charge with points. It's limited to United purchases and the card's annual fee. But that whopping $350 AF was sitting right there in front of me so I decided to check what the points are worth.

"How much for how much?" That's always the question when redeeming points. Travel providers and their credit card partners love to give us shitty redemption options. Like, "Here, redeem these points at one-third a cent apiece on these golf clubs instead of realizing 1.1 cents per point (cpp) or more on airline tickets!" You have to know what your points are worth not to get ripped off spending them.

United MileagePlus

I know United miles are worth a minimum of 1.1 cpp when buying tickets. Thus I was surprised when I clicked through the PYB interface on my Chase card account and saw that it would credit my $350 AF for 25,000 points— a redemption rate of 1.4 cpp!

It's unclear right now if this 1.4 cpp rate applies to United tickets, too. If so, this is a great backdoor way to score better than the 1.1 cpp floor. Potentially it could make all of my United Miles worth more! But I say "unclear" and "potentially" because I checked PYB via another card, where I have some United flight charges eligible, and it offered me credits at a rate of 1.0 cpp. It's unclear if that's down to a difference in cards or if the higher rate is only for annual fees.

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The Government Shutdown Doesn't Affect Me. Yet.

Effective yesterday morning, October 1, the federal government went into shutdown mode because Congress and the president have not been able to agree on a budget to fund it. While this situation may sound alarming— OMG, the federal government has shut down!— it's happened several times before in the current era. (See, for example, Wikipedia article Government Shutdowns in the United States.) And for a lot of people, myself included, there's little or no impact on actual daily life.

I'm not a government employee. Non-essential government employees are furloughed, meaning they're not working during the shutdown. Though I read yesterday that some 75% of all federal employees are deemed essential. So most government workers are still at work.

I don't live in an area where the local economy is heavily dependent on government workers, like next to a big military base or government office. Though my relatives who live near Washington, D.C., where many of their friends are neighbors rely on government salaries, reported in past shutdowns there was little impact on people's spending habits. That's because while government employees are not paid during the shutdown— even the 75% of them deemed essential who still have to work— in the past they've always been paid in arrears, in full, even if they didn't have to work. Edited to add: A bill passed by Congress in 2019, during the previous shutdown, and signed into law by President Trump (in his first term) guarantees pay for all government employees, even those furloughed.

I don't depend directly on federal programs. I don't receive benefit checks. I don't need assistance from people whose jobs might be nonessential. It's a good thing my passport isn't up for renewal soon because, yeah, stuff like that might get delayed. Some national parks are closed... and it's hard to know until you get to the locked gate what's open or closed because them updating their websites is nonessential. And last time a shutdown dragged out for several weeks there were alleged sick-outs among essential employees such as TSA screeners. That could mean delays boarding a flight. But these are small hits that have negligible impact on my life. So far....

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No More Free HOV Lane Access for Hybrid/EV Cars

It's the end of an era on California highways today. The Clean Air Vehicle (CAV) program that has provided free HOV lane access for many hybrid and EV cars ended yesterday. You may not be sure what CAV is, but if you've driven any amount in California's big cities in the past 20+ years you've surely seen the stickers on cars whizzing past you in the carpool lanes:

California Clean Air Vehicle program sticker (adapted from Getty Images)

California Clean Air Vehicle program sticker (adapted from Getty Images)

The program actually started in 1999, I read today. (Example news coverage: LAist article 30 Sep 2025) I didn't personally notice it as a California resident & driver until around 2005. Prior to that hybrid cars were rare, even out in California. But with Toyota's release of the second generation Prius in 2003 the hybrid started to become a best seller locally. Part of that success was access to these "ACCESS OK" stickers allowing free use of HOV lanes even with a solo occupant aboard. People with well paying jobs and long commutes started snapping them up to shorten their driving time.

A few years later, in 2008, gas prices spiked. The price at the pump of gas literally doubled in three years... when inflation overall was nearly flat. This sent even more commuters out to buy fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles— the Prius of that time was rated at close to 50mpg on the highway— trading in the gas-guzzling trucks and full-size SUVs that had dominated sales for years.

I remember quipping to colleagues in 2008~2009 that our company parking lot looked like a Toyota Prius dealership. There were so many look-alike cars that colleagues occasionally complained, "Oh, shit, my key doesn't work!"... only to find they were trying to open somebody else's Prius. 🤣

One thing I've noticed about the carpool lanes locally is that with all the hybrid/EV drivers and kid-poolers, they're often just as clogged as the regular lanes at rush hour. I wonder how much they'll lighten up now that the free pass stickers no longer work.

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high holy days

Have mostly not been here and so much to write

But right now I really should at least attempt to get back to sleep. Sleeping is not happening tonight.

I just realized I had suggested finding water for tashlich back at Rosh Hashanah and Cousins and I went for a walk and did not and the time flew by and maybe I can somehow manage today.

The 10 days between the high holidays ended up so incredibly full that they've been anything other than introspective.

And I don't know when I'm going to be able to write.

. Today is going to be just as full, and I'm realizing I'm not going to have time to go home before going to synagogue tonight wherever I'll end up. I suppose I'm still technically a member of agudas. Maybe? But I certainly didn't reserve space. So I'll get together with other cousin I guess before the fast and I guess we'll go to fabrangan.

Everything is such a mess.
In the world, in the country, in my life.

I've been overly irritated in a few directions

I keep living in regrets. Relatedly, Thunderbolts was really good and I enjoyed it. Created a spoilery group on facebook.

I'm dictating because it's the phone and I can't be bothered to go look for a keyboard.

I'm afraid I've missed most of what anyone might have been saying - at this point it's mostly Facebook and signal, so very many freaking signal groups.

I was out in Cleveland for Rosh Hashanah, with both the Cleveland cousins and my Cleveland uncle and Aunt and it was pretty good if short

And I have stuff to return to free - she was nice enough to lend me a molecular covid test so I could feel less paranoid about 92-year-old uncle.

Because mobility issues we tuned into Park avenue synagogue, and it was actually really nice, five of us in the room felt more than communal enough.

Wednesday night I went to the ninja gym and then on to Pittsburgh, and stayed in Pittsburgh with Jim and visited with Charlotte and then briefly with Diane and then got home pretty late. And then the next day joined Sam for NPR tiny desk concert (am finishing InHumana from the prepublication giveaway shelf).

And then activist happy hour which was a time to interact with the folks I've been working with in person and that went pretty late and then home and then up to Ken's and then Saturday to fair and then the two of us stopped off at a burner party complete with hot tub and got home stupid stupid late and then Sunday to Acro and then back for dinner and a walk and a tripping and scraping my knee and eventually watching Thunderbolts starting at midnight

And yesterday a dentist appointment and eventually evening with Joe

And today mammography all the way out in Germantown which meant I got to see Andrian at a really dangerous French bakery, and FreeDC tabling intro on the way to Acro and Acro til 930 and then never managed to be sleepy or at least not to sleep well.

And then yom Kippur starts tonight.

I have appointments tomorrow and several different places, so no I won't be up on Capitol Hill at quarter to noon when both Maryland senators are calling for a press conference and asking feds to join

One thing I don't think is getting out very well about shutdown fight is that any continuing resolution continuing all the horrible from the BBB before. These demands are not new spending but restored spending.

Somewhat relatedly, I suppose, the pediatric brain cancer research program just ended.

Every so often I stop in thinking simply cannot believe we are in this timeline.

And I still haven't actually written a high holidays post

I suppose for placeholder, I do still attempt to be kind. I do still attempt to be good. And I probably suck at all of that, and if I've been hurtful, it's unusual for that to have been on purpose, which in fact in some ways makes it worse I do understand.

(I am currently finding one person on Facebook terribly irritating. He's a good friend of a friend, and I do not know him, and he is quite often irritating, but in that way where one knows he's not trying to be annoying, he's just succeeding)

I suppose if I were being good and kind and nice I wouldn't have volunteered to him that I was finding him irritating. I have not historically told him so.

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it,
job,
spam,
wtf?

Spam on Blast at Work

Something weird is happening with spam and spam filtering at work this week. The volume of spam we're receiving is way up. Whereas I used to see maybe 10 spam messages a day that got through our filters I'm now seeing 50. At the same time a lot of my colleagues are seeing their outgoing messages throttled. Messages are being queued for hours at a time or bounced back to us, undelivered.

The last time I saw a major uptick in incoming spam like this was several years ago, at a different company. And there it was the result of a willful change we'd made. Execs said, "Hmm, spam isn't too bad, deleting 10 a day is manageable, we don't need to pay to renew spam filtering." The very first day after the filtering contract expired we were inundated. Within hours employees from across the company were complaining that email was rendered unusable. And while ICs were contending with several dozen spam messages per day, some senior managers were getting multiple hundreds. Execs restored the budget for spam filtering post-haste.

The situation this week is not due to deliberate change on our side. No exec went the penny wise and pound foolish route of trying to save money on email. Instead, it's a situation that has been thrust upon us.

Google (our email provider) says that we're being throttled because their algorithms see we're the target of a huge uptick in spam. Yeah, we noticed that, too— incoming spam. Why are they treating us like it's our problem? We pay them to fix it; so the fact it's broken is their problem! And why TF are our outgoing emails, legitimate business emails sent by actual people, being throttled? It's like they're punishing us for being victims of their own failing filters.

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Canada Trip Retrospective

Canada travelog #32
Retrospective

"Wait, did you just go to Canada?" you might be wondering from the title of this trip. No, we didn't just go. This is the trip we got back from literally a month ago! Yeah, it's taken that long to get around to writing a trip retrospective. Why? Well, first of all, I was backlogged a week pushing out blogs from the trip. Then I got busy with other trips. Now I've caught up with all my September trips, so it's time to clear the August backlog! (Who knows how long it will take to clear the March/April backlog, though. 😰) So, here are Five Things:

1) First, on the whole, I'm glad we went. I fretted ahead of the trip about whether there'd be enough things to do to fill 9-10 days. Ultimately there were not enough things— though that was a case of unexpected conditions, not poor planning— and we cut the trip short, coming home a few days early.

2) Two days could've been enough time to visit family. Visiting long-lost relatives was the original reason for the trip. We spun it into a larger trip, adding in hiking a bunch of waterfalls, because we figured if we're going all the way to Toronto, we need to stretch the trip longer than 2 days to make the travel time worth it. (Not to mention, we really like hiking waterfalls. 🤣) Well, the trip would've worked at 2 days. I remember thinking Sunday afternoon, "If we had to head back to the airport now, I'd be satisfied with this trip." A key part of what made a weekend trip as distant as Toronto— similar in travel time to flying to the East Coast— palatable was flying first class nonstop on the red-eye out there. Getting even 4 hours of sleep on the overnight flight made it possible to have a mostly normal day Saturday. On trips where I've had to spend half of Saturday recovering from a sleepless night flying coach, leaving on Sunday seems too soon.

3) The ability to call an audible was important. We decided Tuesday, in the middle of our trip, to change plans and fly home two days early. Why? Because our plans to hike a bunch of waterfalls fell apart when we discovered that many were dry. I've remarked before maintaining flexibility in plans is important. In this case the flexibility allowed us to recover from unexpected adverse conditions. And we made satisfying use of the days we reclaimed. We spent all of Labor Day weekend at home, lounging by (and in) the pool.

4) I'm glad we kept hotel changes to a minimum. We stayed in once place for the family-visit part of the trip and another for the waterfalls-hiking part. Two hotels for 6 nights (originally 8 nights was the plan) seems kind of stay-put for me. So many times in the past I've quipped about staying at 7 hotels in 8 nights. This time I was glad we kept changes of venue to a minimum. Though I did fret at first when I saw how much driving, in traffic, we had to do to get to/from some of the waterfalls each day, I quickly realized it was easier to add a bit of freeway driving on each end of the day's journey than to have to deal with packing up our suitcases, checking out, locating the next hotel, checking in, and unpacking. It enjoyed the comfort of making a temporary "home away from home"— that wasn't just a spinner suitcase.

5) An easy pace was a good pace. Across the whole trip, both the family part and the hiking part, we under-scheduled our days. I fretted a bit about this a few times early in the trip, worrying that failure to plan aggressively enough would leave too much idle time and I'd regret missing opportunities. It turned out that only happened one day and it was because of crummy weather, not poor planning. The rest of the days we filled up to a comfortable level. The key was while we under-scheduled our days we also kept a list of things we could add in as time permitted. That flexibility let us find the right balance between taking it easy and taking advantage of things to do.

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Home this Weekend. Work in the Shower.

This was a stay-home weekend for me. It's not too surprising that after, like, seven trips in the past 8 weeks I needed a weekend just spent at home. And especially with last week— or the last 3/5 of it— being so busy preparing a customer workshop Wed-Thu, followed by delivering it on Friday, after getting a last-minute system failure fixed before 6am, I was toast. I couldn't focus on anything else. I had no gas left in my tank to work on anything serious, such as preparing for session two of the workshop. It was all I could manage to finish my weekly reporting at the end of the day Friday.

This weekend wasn't all sitting around, vegging, though I'm not sure how much I'd have minded if it were. Instead, Hawk and I got busy fiddling around with one of our showers.

We'd left this shower unused for several years because small sections of grout and caulk were in poor shape. Well, two weeks ago Hawk buckled down (while I was out of town on one of my business trips) and patched the grout and redid the caulk. Great news, the shower's ready to use again, right? Except as we did start using it for a week we discovered that the shower head leaks.

The shower head is old...ish and was left unused for years, so probably a washer in it dried out. Yet it's new enough that it's designed in the "No user-serviceable parts inside" school of force-you-to-buy-another-one product design. So we couldn't just unscrew the face plate and replace the washer for $.30. No, we had to buy a whole damn new shower head. For the type we wanted, a roughly similar replacement, it was $55. Fifty-five dollars because we couldn't open the old one to replace a 30-cent washer.

Oh, but it gets better. And by "better" I mean worse. You know how everybody maligns low-flow toilets? Well apparently all shower heads are low-flow, too now. And our old one wasn't even that old. We installed it back in, I think 2008. Or maybe 2010. Anyway, it's not like it's from the 1960s or something. Or even the 1990s. But the new ones are all lower flow.

While replacing the shower head we discovered another problem. The shower valve leaks. The leak comes in the form of the shower head dripping water even when the valve is turned off. Probably another 30-cent washer problem, I grumbled to myself. But this one might cost hundreds to fix.

We took a crack at the shower valve on Sunday to see what we're working with. Unlike the shower head which can't be opened and fixed, the valve consists of several components that can be disassembled, cleaned or replaced, and put back together. We checked stores and found the "replaced" option would cost anywhere from $30 to $120 (plus the value of our time), so I tried the "cleaned" option first and put everything back together. No dice. It still drips.

So, we have new parts on order. It looks like next weekend will be another stay-around-home weekend. Stay around home and fix the shower, that is.

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Last Week may have been the Last Hurrah, Ever

Phoenix Getaway travelog #14
Retrospective

Our relaxing weekend in Phoenix last week Saturday through Tuesday was enjoyable. We didn't get out for the hiking we'd originally intended. Hawk's broken less than a week earlier put the kibosh on that. But just taking it easy at the resorts with the splashy pools for 3-4 days was more fun that I thought. Here's the sad thing, though. For one of those splashy resorts, an old favorite, our visit there last week may have been our last hurrah with them, forever.

The Hilton Resort at the Peak has been going downhill for several years. We've noticed the compounding effects of deferred maintenance on return visits year after year. The facilities have all been getting older and parts of them haven't been kept up. For example, I haven't seen the swim-up pool bars open in several years. And the rot on their window frames shows management has simply let them go. This trip the hot tubs were broken, too. One's heater was busted, the other's jets were busted.

One of the hotel's two wings was closed on this visit. I knew that when I booked our stay several weeks ago as the rooms in that wing were all marked unavailable. Hooray for renovations, right? The place would certainly benefit from an update. And once that wing is open— which might be within a few weeks— they're closing down the other wing, the one we stayed in, for renovations. I allowed a certain about of forbearance on things like the busted hot tubs and the long-closed pool bar, figuring they'll fix those in the imminent renovation.

The renovation had drawbacks, though. Perhaps because they only have half the rooms to rent, or perhaps because the reno— or the property's declining state— is scaring guests away, they had shorter hours on various things in the water park. "We can't afford the staff right now," one manager told me. I repeated that phrase to another manager when we checked out on Tuesday. "If you can't afford to staff the facilities, I don't like that I was asked to pay full price for them."

To his credit, the manager I spoke to at checkout acknowledged the problem and gave us a discount on the bill. I was ready for them to put up a fight about that and had prepared my arguments, but the manager offered the discount immediately. His quick agreement told me he gets such complaints a lot.

With the good service recovery I would be willing to try the hotel again once renovations are complete. As I was discussing the plan of those renovations with the manager, though, it became unclear whether we'll want to stay at the renovated hotel.

It sounds like the owners are trying to push the property more upscale, with fewer splashy pool and more posh event spaces, like for weddings and company sales meetings. The property moving a bit upscale per se wouldn't bother us; especially as it's become rough around the edges in so many places through deferred maintenance. But we like the splashy pools! Nicer rooms with fewer pools is not a tradeoff we'd appreciate. And it looks like the rates will being going up, too. Fewer pools and substantially higher prices is definitely not a combo we'd return for.

So it seems like the Hilton Phoenix Resort might have to drop off our list of places to return to every year or two. That's sad because we've been going for over 12 years now! At least there's another splashy-pools resort in Phoenix we've found. It's actually got a slightly better water park... though it's always more expensive. This trip, for example, it would've cost us $150/night more to stay there than the Hilton. I'm not sure if that's worth it.

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Last Hurrah at the Resort Tuesday Morning

Phoenix Getaway travelog #12
Now at PHX airport · Tue, 23 Sep 2025. 1:30pm

We're at the airport now, chilling before our flight home in 2 hours, but before coming here we did enjoy a last hurrah at the resort this morning.

We got up early this morning, around my usual weekday 6:45am alarm. Aren't we supposed to sleep in on vacation? Well, yes and no. When the sun's up early and sets early it makes sense to make good use of daylight. And it's not like we were up late last night anyway. We tried using the resort's hot tubs after dinner but both were broken. One had no heat, the other had no jets. So after a short soak we returned to our room for the evening.

Breakfast at the Cafe

Since we were up early today we opted to sit for breakfast in the hotel's small restaurant. The past few days we've contented ourselves with eating protein bars in the room so today we decided to splurge a bit. Plus, one of my elite benefits here at the Hilton hotel is a $30/day food credit. Yesterday we used the credit toward our lunch at the pool cafe. Today we figured we wouldn't stay late enough for lunch so we used it toward breakfast. Not that it covers breakfast. $15 each doesn't even get the job halfway done when breakfast plates are around $20 apiece, plus $5 for a juice or soda, plus tax and tip. But it changes the cost calculus enough that we enjoyed dining out instead of eating protein bars in the room.

Quiet Morning in the Water Park

After breakfast we returned to the room, relaxed a bit, and changed into our swimsuits to hit the lazy river just after its 9am opening time.

The water park at the hotel isn't very busy on a Tuesday morning (Sep 2025)

The water park at the hotel isn't very busy on a Tuesday morning (Sep 2025)

Yesterday was pretty quiet at the water park. Today seemed even quieter. Even though this is a great time of year for #PoolLife in Phoenix— the weather is hot but not too hot— the resort hasn't been too busy. I figure that's because school's back in session, so families aren't taking trips outside of the weekend. And even on the weekends they're buying fewer day-passes as kids are busy with sports and other activities on the weekends. And that was all part of my plan for why to make this trip now. We balance great summer-y weather— even though today's high of 100° is crisp Fall weather by Phoenix standards 🤣— with less crowding.

We spent a few hours at the river ranch this morning, alternating between floating around the lazy river and relaxing on lounge chairs in the shade. Come 11:30 or so we decided to call it a day... er, morning... and headed back to our room. I'd arranged a late checkout of 1pm so we could shower, change, and pack our bags after using the pool.

Making Time to Shower and Change

The late checkout wasn't strictly necessary. The hotel is fine with guests staying in the water park all day after the normal 11am checkout. We've taken advantage of that policy several times in the past... packing our bags in the morning, stowing them in the car, staying in the pool area until sometime mid-afternoon, and changing in one of the bathrooms when it's time to leave for the airport. But having a room to go back to is more civilized, and today the timing made sense for that. Plus, taking a shower in our private room instead of changing quickly in a public bathroom has made me feel a lot more refreshed.

Little Charge for Charging

Like I said at the top, we're chilling at the airport now. Oh, returning out rental car involved a bit of... weirdness. Remember I maligned renting an EV because figuring out charging without an annual subscription is a pain in the ass. And expensive. Well, I decided to simplify the conundrum of "a pain in the ass and expensive" down to just expensive and return the car with 60% charge to the rental depot and pay whatever ridiculous marked-up rate they charge for electrons. Y'know, like how they charge you $6/gallon for gas if you return the car less than full.

I noted the less-than-full battery to the attendant processing car returns and asked about the cost.

"It's only 12 cents," he said with a chuckle. "We'll email you a receipt."

"12 cents per kilowatt hour," I responded, "That's great. Without a membership the commercial recharging stations are charging 48 cents on up."

Except I'd misunderstood him. The rate wasn't 12 cents per kilowatt hour— which I estimate would've come out to $4 or $5 total to top off the battery. I checked the emailed receipt just now on my computer, and it shows 12 cents, total, for the electro-fillup. Bonus!

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Afternoon at the Lazy River

Phoenix Getaway travelog #11
Hilton Resort · Mon, 22 Sep 2025. 6:30pm

Being out in the sun and the heat (high in the 90s today) at the pool takes a lot out of us. Even if we're mostly lounging on lounge chairs and floating in the lazy river. Oh, and riding the water slide after lunch. We did the lazy river and the lounge chairs for another few hours and then went back to our room for a while. We were tired! But also, Hawk wanted to go shopping. 🤣

After some shopping, which started with a gem shop but then extended to visiting the hoity-toity AJ's supermarket to buy sushi for dinner, we were hungry. We started eating our take-home dinner even though it was before 5. But then we started to wonder, "Is this it? Are we 'done' for the day?" I pressed for No, we're not! We put down our sushi after eating lightly, put back on our swimsuits, and headed out for a late-afternoon round at the pool at 5:15.

Late afternoon ride in the lazy river at the Hilton Phoenix Resort (Sep 2025)

Late afternoon ride in the lazy river at the Hilton Phoenix Resort (Sep 2025)

After 5 the sun's already starting to set in Phoenix. Remember, Arizona doesn't do Daylight Saving Time. And since today's the autumnal equinox, sunset is around 6pm. But we decided to make the most of the last 45 minutes of daylight at the waterpark.

Late afternoon ride in the lazy river at the Hilton Phoenix Resort (Sep 2025)

And by "make the most" I mean we floated loops around the lazy river until closing.

Late afternoon ride in the lazy river at the Hilton Phoenix Resort (Sep 2025)

We did our now-usual tandem arrangement. Hawk grabbed a double float so she could protect her foot (the one with a broken toe) in it, while I said in a single raft behind her and hooked on. Occasionally I switched positions between sitting up (as above) and floating on my belly (as below).

Late afternoon ride in the lazy river at the Hilton Phoenix Resort (Sep 2025)

Just before 6 the staff started doing rounds telling everybody it's time to get out of the pool. That was when I realized I'd lost my refillable water bottle. ...The one that, this time, I had refilled with white wine. 😆 Yeah, it was fun floating around in the late afternoon shade with two glasses worth of wine in my belly.

It was also kind of fun going looking for the refillable bottle. I put up my raft and went walking through the lazy river. Doing a swift, even in the direction of the slow current, is quite a cardio workout! I walked a full lap around the river and caught up to my bottle just as it was reaching the pull-out point. I could've just stood there for a few minutes and caught it! But hey, the cardio was a good way to cap off the day.