So today begins our ten days of traveling for Turkey Day, Jerod's wedding and my ten year high school reunion. Given our complicated itineraries, it is only fitting that the day start out like it did...
...so we woke up a bit late and still have to pack, but no big deal. Shane was successfully out of the house by 8:45 and headed to the Metro, which would eventually take him to Baltimore Airport. Amidst his travels, he sent me a message asking me to check him in. Well, I tried, but Southwest's only response is an "ERROR MESSAGE". After several failed attempts, I decided to give up and informed Shane that he has to check himself in when he gets to the airport, and thus, will likely be stuck with a "C" boarding pass. Although there was that gut feeling that something was just not right, I dismissed the feeling and continued working.
However, about 45 minutes later, Shane arrived at the airport to check in and low and behold the kiosk cannot find his reservation. Nor can the man behind the counter. The flight is in 50 minutes and at this point Shane's only options are (a) to stay in the DC area or (b) to purchase the $366 flight to Houston. Seeing that staying in town and missing everything is not an option, Shane chose option (b) and proceeds through security.
Once inside the terminal, his nagging wife (me!) kept pestering him as to whether or not he made it standby on his original flight. Amidst my constant inquiries, we were both walking through all of the steps of booking the flight -- and finally came to the conclusion that he just must not have hit the final button and the transaction didn't go through.
However, this was not sufficient for me and so I hacked (okay, well he gave me the password) into his Southwest account for some investigative work. I saw that he earned an award on 12/20/07 and I saw that the associated credits have been "used" but I could see the corresponding flight. This irritated me and I decided that I am going to call Southwest and get to the bottom of this. This might seem like a normal undertaking, but for those who know me, there might be a little bit of a bitchy side to me...and I was seriously afraid of what I was going to say to the lady on the phone.
After explaining to her the situation -- about not being able to find the reservation to the disappearing credits -- she informed me that she can in fact see the flight that Shane was booked on. She then tells me that he was booked on the 10:05 flight out of DULLES connecting in Chicago and arriving in Houston at 2:30. Well, at this point, I think my jaw hit the desk.
DULLES! Shane was at Baltimore, not Dulles. He didn't go to the airport near our house. He trekked through downtown DC and into the next state...to the WRONG AIRPORT! Only my husband could go to the wrong airport for a flight!
Luckily, she was able to release the award travel to us, and I was able to book him on a later flight out of Baltimore this evening. And luckily for us, the $366 ticket was fully refundable. Total cost of the day - $2.50 service charge for the award travel. Total cost of the memory of my husband going to the wrong airport - Priceless.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Apologies!
For not writing and keeping everyone updated...A lot has been going on, with maybe some upcoming changes (who us, never!) so I will be sure to update everyone soon!
Hope all is well...less than a week until Houston and then Chicago! Yay for holidays and seeing family and friends!
Love,
Steph & Shane
Hope all is well...less than a week until Houston and then Chicago! Yay for holidays and seeing family and friends!
Love,
Steph & Shane
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Houseguests!
So, unless something comes up between now and then (Christina, please no more broken bones while rollerblading that require surgery), we will have our first house guests this weekend! This is exciting on many fronts...
...first and foremost is the actual house guests...Christina and Pablo! Not only do we have an absolute blast with them everytime we hang out, but we actually get to host them for once. We've stayed at their old San Fran pad on two occasions -- one trip to wine country and one to Tahoe -- and we've never been able to return the favor because either (a) Shane and I didn't live in the same city or (b) they stayed elsewhere during their trips to the Windy City. Unfortunately, we don't have luxury, private accommodations in our one bedroom place, but we do have a cleared out corner of the living room, an air mattress and down comforters. Not too shabby. Hopefully it will do! However, it will be quite interesting having 4 people share one bathroom. I will keep all posted on this...
...second, we get to be tourists! Not quite sure what we'll do or what C&P will want to do, but either way, I am sure that we'll get to embark on some sort of adventure that we have yet to do in this fabulous city. Shopping in Georgetown, eating at a yummy restaurants, sipping wine at a local vineyard (did you know northern Virginia rivals Napa? and that there are wineries within 35 minutes of our house?), or seeing the memorials...so much to do! One thing we will be doing for certain is cheering on the marathon runners! Go Karen, Nicole and Denise (and of course anyone else I might possibly know who is running!)
...lastly, it forces us to finish the house organization and unpacking! This is about 95% done, but we cannot find the motivation to finish the last few tasks. All that remains is (1) hanging another level of shelving in the closet (you try cramming two peoples stuff into one small walk in closet -- talk about difficult) (2) re-hanging the bathroom shelves (these were up and looking pretty, but we quickly learned that they had too much weight on them, when Shane's reach made them come crashing down) and (3) the last two boxes (its all miscellaneous stuff -- like all wedding memoirs -- that have no place in everyday life, but need to be saved!)
Alright, time to get back to work. Hope all is well with everyone and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon! The next few months are pretty busy travel wise for us, so I'll post our schedule below, and hopefully we can catch up and see everyone!
Friday 10/31 -- Libertyville, IL -- Mickey Finn's Brewery with the Kiefers and Pastorinos
Saturday 11/1 -- Chicago, IL -- Dave & Tiffany's wedding
Friday 11/21 -- Steph will be sleeping at O'hare; Shane will be in Houston
Saturday 11/22 -- Victoria, TX -- Jerod & Erin's wedding
Sunday 11/23 - Friday 11/28 -- Houston, TX -- Thanksgiving!
Friday 11/28 - Monday 12/1 -- Chicago, IL including my 10 year reunion that Saturday
Wednesday 12/17 - Saturday 12/20 -- Chicago, IL
Saturday 12/20 - Monday 12/29 -- Houston, TX
Monday 12/29 - Sunday 1/4 -- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Whew...that's a lot of travel...after that, house guests welcome! Miss you all tons!
Love,
Stephanie & Shane
...first and foremost is the actual house guests...Christina and Pablo! Not only do we have an absolute blast with them everytime we hang out, but we actually get to host them for once. We've stayed at their old San Fran pad on two occasions -- one trip to wine country and one to Tahoe -- and we've never been able to return the favor because either (a) Shane and I didn't live in the same city or (b) they stayed elsewhere during their trips to the Windy City. Unfortunately, we don't have luxury, private accommodations in our one bedroom place, but we do have a cleared out corner of the living room, an air mattress and down comforters. Not too shabby. Hopefully it will do! However, it will be quite interesting having 4 people share one bathroom. I will keep all posted on this...
...second, we get to be tourists! Not quite sure what we'll do or what C&P will want to do, but either way, I am sure that we'll get to embark on some sort of adventure that we have yet to do in this fabulous city. Shopping in Georgetown, eating at a yummy restaurants, sipping wine at a local vineyard (did you know northern Virginia rivals Napa? and that there are wineries within 35 minutes of our house?), or seeing the memorials...so much to do! One thing we will be doing for certain is cheering on the marathon runners! Go Karen, Nicole and Denise (and of course anyone else I might possibly know who is running!)
...lastly, it forces us to finish the house organization and unpacking! This is about 95% done, but we cannot find the motivation to finish the last few tasks. All that remains is (1) hanging another level of shelving in the closet (you try cramming two peoples stuff into one small walk in closet -- talk about difficult) (2) re-hanging the bathroom shelves (these were up and looking pretty, but we quickly learned that they had too much weight on them, when Shane's reach made them come crashing down) and (3) the last two boxes (its all miscellaneous stuff -- like all wedding memoirs -- that have no place in everyday life, but need to be saved!)
Alright, time to get back to work. Hope all is well with everyone and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon! The next few months are pretty busy travel wise for us, so I'll post our schedule below, and hopefully we can catch up and see everyone!
Friday 10/31 -- Libertyville, IL -- Mickey Finn's Brewery with the Kiefers and Pastorinos
Saturday 11/1 -- Chicago, IL -- Dave & Tiffany's wedding
Friday 11/21 -- Steph will be sleeping at O'hare; Shane will be in Houston
Saturday 11/22 -- Victoria, TX -- Jerod & Erin's wedding
Sunday 11/23 - Friday 11/28 -- Houston, TX -- Thanksgiving!
Friday 11/28 - Monday 12/1 -- Chicago, IL including my 10 year reunion that Saturday
Wednesday 12/17 - Saturday 12/20 -- Chicago, IL
Saturday 12/20 - Monday 12/29 -- Houston, TX
Monday 12/29 - Sunday 1/4 -- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Whew...that's a lot of travel...after that, house guests welcome! Miss you all tons!
Love,
Stephanie & Shane
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