Cougar Fest

From Urbandictionary.com -
Cougar - A 35+ year old female who is on the "hunt" for a much younger, energetic, willing-to-do-anything male. The cougar can frequently be seen in a padded bra, cleavage exposed, propped up against a swanky bar in San Francisco (or other cities)waiting, watching, calculating; gearing up to sink her claws into an innocent young and strapping buck who happens to cross her path. "Man is cougar's number one prey"

My buddy J.H. didn't know this term prior to our Texas visit. We had to do our best to point them out to him so as he didn't come near the dangerous creature.

Here he is looking as sexy as ever.

Saturday night we attended the Cattlebarron's Ball. As posted previously my buddy J.E. is kind of a big deal at his place of employment and his company gave some serious cash to sponsor this cancer benefit so we had some primo seats and a good time.

One thing I learned, a dress and cowboy boots is a highly underrated look. Unfortunately I have no good pictures of this so you will just have to trust me.

So the ball went like this, show ticket and ID at driveway entrance to ranch, enter ranch through long driveway have car valeted. Register, proceed through photo booth, enter barn with musical entertainment, silent auction and most importantly open bar. Luckily I'm old now because in my 20's open bar was a recipe for disaster. I'm happy to report that I behaved myself (well relative to an open bar situation anyway).

Around 7:00 there was dinner. The smell of the bar-b-que was amazing, like burning hickory.
Around 10:00 the entertainment started. A show my Ronnie Milsap, the blind country singer with 40 number one hits. I didn't think I knew any of his songs until the show started. It was a pleasant surprise and since every seat was good it was probably the best seats I'll ever have at any concert.
Following the concert....the dancing. What do you get when you combine a once a year event, a babysitter for the kids, 5 hours of open bar, and dancing?

Be careful

It's All Bigger In

If you read the previous post, you know I was here last weekend.

Waco to be exact. I know, anyone between the ages of 20 and 90 probably only knows Waco as the home of the Branch Davidions, but my buddy that lives there promised me it had more to offer than that and I must agree that it did.

Baylor University is there.

Here's the three amigos. Normally there's four. Here's the fourth (with J.E.), he had some lame excuse to not travel, some medical conference or something so that he can save your life.
The guy on the right in orange is J.H., he lives near Minneapolis but after some serious soul searching when he became a traitor I decided to remain his friend. The other guy on the far left is the buddy we went to visit. He's J.E. but you might know him by this...
It was really nice there. People were extraordinarily friendly. My friend works in the media so I suspect that many of his associates are naturally outgoing anyway but everyone was really nice. There's a big lake right on the outskirts of Waco. Next time I go I want to rent a pontoon there or take a boat ride.
This was taken between Waco and Dallas.

On Saturday we spent the entire day by the pool at a country club. It's really too bad I didn't get any pictures there, the ah, scenery was quite good. It was really hot, somehow I actually remembered to be careful of the sun and avoid a sun burn. I'm like the red incredible hulk when I get sunburned. You wouldn't like me when I'm sunburned. Here's Scot Hulk.

That's a couple of years ago in Mexico. I was too skinny then. We did south beach diet for a couple of months, closest we ever came to a divorce.

At any rate, Friday night we went out to a bar. When I was 20 years old, another friend of mine and I traveled to NYC. We got lost on the subway and accidentally ended up in Harlem (this was before Harlem was rejuvinated). When caught in that subway stop we kept our heads down and didn't accidentally look at anyone. My experience in that Texas bar was only slightly different. Jeans, button up western shirt and cowboy hat was the accepted dress code. We left there and went to a George's another place. My choice of clothing fit in better there.

Coming next, Saturday night....

Cougar Fest '08

Continental Airlines SUCKS BALLS

Sorry mom if you read that but my loathing right now for Continental can only be summed up as such.

This previous weekend I traveled to Waco, Texas (more on that in the next post). Normally I would talk about the trip sequentially but so great was the suckiness of Continental on the return trip that I have to begin there.

I was scheduled to fly on Flight 2406 from Dallas to Houston for a connection on to my Milwaukee When I arrived at my gate the flight was scheduled to depart as normal.

· At 3:30 the flight was delayed until 4:53.

· At 4:30 the flight was delayed without a time or any further explanation.

· At this time I contacted the Continental 1-800 # and spoke to a representative who informed me that my flight, 2406, was delayed due to weather. While I was on the phone with her another flight arrived from Houston I told her this and informed her that weather must not be the issue. By the way the 800 number for Continental is in Houston couldn't she just look out her f'ing window. She then put me on hold to talk to her boss. When she returned she told me that my flight is now delayed until approx. 6:50 p.m. I advised her that I would miss my connection. She offered to book me on a flight from Dallas to Houston on Monday June 9 instead. I declined

· Without explanation from either gate agent both of which were either unwilling, unable or too incompetent to make any announcement to those of us waiting for flight 2406 passengers from flight 2637 also waiting at our gate for a flight that was supposed to leave an hour later than my flight are loaded and depart for Houston at 5:00.

· At about 5:10 gate personnel finally made an announcement regarding the expected arrival of our plane from Houston. The gate agent declares that it has been delayed due to mechanical difficulties. These gate agents are unable or unwilling to help anyone with connections. Not only that, they never even asked anyone on the previous flight if their final destination was Houston. I.e. why not put people with connections on a flight that is actually on time and delay those not going anywhere else. NO WONDER CONTINENTAL IS WORRIED ABOUT BANKRUPTCY. THE SOONER THE BETTER.

· At approximately 7:00 flight 2406 (my flight) departs.

· At approximately 7:45 our fight arrives in Houston. I went immediately to customer service. I was informed that I had been re-booked for Monday June 9 on flight 3083 due to the fact that I missed my connection due to mechanical failure. I inquire about the possibility of being re-routed on flight 2146 to Chicago. The agent responded that she could put me on standby. While I pride myself on instantaneous judgement calls this would not prove to be one of them.

· I immediately went to the Chicago gate and check in with the gate agent to confirm my standby status and I inquired with her about ground transportation from Chicago to Milwaukee. She told me that I customer service in Chicago would help me with that. She also told me that I needed to wait at the gate because of my standby status.

· At 9:00 I was allowed on flight 2146 bound for Chicago and we departed.

· At 11:30 the captain informed us we needed to land in Indianapolis to refuel and wait out bad weather in Chicago. We land in Indy at midnight and are held on our plane. Some woman next to my starts crying.

· At 2:00 a.m. we leave Indianapolis.

· At 2:35 a.m. we arrived in Chicago. I immediately went to the gate agent and inquired about ground transportation to Milwaukee. He said that customer service in the baggage claim area would help me.

· I went directly to customer service in the baggage area. Get ready for the moral of this story, the woman working informed me that all ground transportation for the night had ceased. Apparently even though Chicago is like one of the busiest airports in the world and even though the cab line was an hour long there is no other public transportation after 11:00. She says she can't help me. I ask where the rental car counters are and get this, FRACKING (new word of the weekend) O'Hare doesn't have rental car counters. It only has a bank of phones which happen to be right next to the world's loudest elevator.

· At 3:00 a.m. I began calling rental car and transportation services. When talking to one agent she says "when do you want to pick the car up sir" I said "15 minutes" she said "I need to know what time you want to pick the car up" I said "I'm sorry it's really loud in here, I'd like it in 15 minutes" She said, (thoroughly annoyed) "I need to know what time that would be sir" "Well add 15 minutes to your fucking watch and that's what time." (well that's what I was thinking anyway), I said "3:15." "Okay we can give you a compact car for ... wait.... wait... $200" I hung up.

At this point I begin calling other rental companies, same story. Okay, isn't the free market society based on supply and demand. Are there really that many people that need rental cars between the hours of 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. I mean, I pay for gas, it's my insurance, etc. I just rented a car for all of next weekend, 48 hours for $80. This is for you rental car companies.

I begin calling car services. Bingo, I find a car service that will drive me to my house for only $195. At this point I feel like this guy. I give in.

· At 3:45 I was picked up by an Eastern European guy like this.

When we arrived at my house at 5:00 and he told me that the there was a mandatory 20% tip that I was responsible for adding I wasn't going to argue.

Total cost of my original flight to Waco $348.
Total cost of ride from Chicago to Milwaukee $234.

Stay classy Continental.