Friday, March 21, 2008

I made a mistake in my Tribune article on Thursday, and it’s driving me crazy (short drive) that I can’t reprint the whole paper. Here’s the deal: You can convert Starwood points to AAdvantage miles and get a 25% bonus, but you don’t get two for one. Sadly, it takes two Starwood points to get one United Mileage Plus mile, which I think was what I meant to say, but somehow I screwed it up and got it backwards. That’s the beauty of the radio; you can fix a mistake right away, or worst-case scenario, the next day. It will be a month before I have something in the Tribune again, and it won’t make sense to correct it then. It barely makes sense now.

I’m planning on going to Los Angeles on Friday (3-21) to visit my parents and my brother for Easter. The weather forecasts on Thursday (3-20) afternoon are making me think that it might be more difficult than it sounds. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what transpires overnight and tomorrow. I am all for visiting the family and getting some L.A. sun, but I’m not waiting at O’Hare all day to do it. My parents want to order in Chinese food anyway (not even a trip to Chinatown), so they might be less than enthused to have me out there. I was thinking Lawry’s The Prime Rib, but I guess I can always hit up the one here in Chicago.

As I write this, I am currently entertaining two dudes from ABT who are fixing all of the little things wrong with our appliances. We are having problems with the stove (locking arm for cleaning), the refrigerator (water dispenser and ice maker), the freezer in the basement (defrost cycle) and a host of other little things. From what I can determine from the repair guys who quote me the price of each new part they bring off of the truck, it might have been cheaper to order all new appliances. The part just to fix the water dispenser is $500, and that doesn’t even begin to fix the icemaker. I know because I asked. They both just smiled and laughed.