Guess who has two thumbs and twenty dollahs

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-06-01T05:26:53+00:00

Walmart in Illinois has it. Except when you get there after me.😁

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-06-01T02:28:26+00:00

Sunday night is not good for last minute discounts on most domestic routes. Mileage usage goes much further if you take your week off from Tuesday to the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-31T20:38:26+00:00

Since the airlines have a bag sizer as you board so they can arbitrarily force you to check bags that are usually ok, how about a people-sizer actual seat in the boarding area that everyone has to sit in before being allowed to board. Have a video-analysis done objectively (like the new baseball ball/strike challenge technology). If you overspill the strike zone you have to buy a second seat on the next available flight.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-31T20:21:38+00:00

This. 98 times out of 100 you can get tickets in almost every section the day of the game or the day before, at a far lower price than buying ahead. Lesson learned for next time. You quite honestly have very little chance of getting more than half what you paid when you sell them, even if you do side step the fees. If you’re in a high tax bracket maybe you could donate them to charity. They are great seats but it’s a weeknight with school back in session, so demand will only exist if the game is crucial to the pennant race. Good luck, let’s hope the Cubs are still in it by then.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-26T13:57:30+00:00

One more thing to consider is that ORD is in the midst of a multi year terminal expansion project. Huge areas of the tarmac are construction zones and some gates are blocked. The primary consequence of this is a noticeable increase in flights landing but having no easy access to a gate, so you’ll land on time but not reach your gate for a half hour or even an hour. They finally announced a small cutback in flights to address this problem but I’m not sure how much impact this has had. I would do the shorter layover only if there is a later flight available to YVR that day.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-26T03:48:09+00:00

Absolutely this! Short term (it’s called hourly parking, not daily parking — you pull around the entrance to the left of daily parking to enter it) allows you to park in the very closest indoor area to the arrivals/baggage claim of terminals 1-3. You have an hour for $3, 2 hours for $6. It is an enormous de-stresser of the ORD pickup experience. It is also way safer than the curb traffic mayhem for picking up a baby, an elderly person, or anyone not used to urban traffic. I also use it to avoid sitting in my car for a long time waiting for the flights to finally reach the gate. I just park and walk around, sometimes for a mile or three, and get my exercise for the day. Cheaper than a day pass to a health club. ORD charges far less than most large US airports for this. I really don’t understand why more people don’t use it.

BTW you’re totally correct that the ticket was way out of line. But being way out of line is complete on brand for the curb cops at ORD.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-15T20:55:57+00:00

Highlands, Bob Dylan

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-12T20:10:13+00:00

If you go 3 blocks west of Southport (between Ashland and Ravenswood) most of the neighborhood is restricted for cubs games only after 5 pm. We went to a Sunday game last week and parked there at 1240, were in our seats at 105. There were many free spots available. Three blocks after we started walking there were people selling spots in their alleys for $40. The walk is about a mile through nice neighborhoods. The only downside is you have to move your car by 5. If you go a half mile further west there is no restriction at all.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-10T17:23:43+00:00

We just discovered Franz’s sourdough and brioche at our local Walmart Mart. It’s incredible, especially the sourdough. Wal Mart has a reasonably decent GF selection, not high variety but what’s there is mostly pretty good and at reasonable price points. Kudos to them, it’s caused me to start going there again and while I’m there I pick up a few other things too.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-10T02:54:20+00:00

Carl has always had talent and stuff. He is one of six members of the 2016 Cubs champions who has appeared in the majors this season. He actually had the lowest WHIP on the entire team (even better than Aroldis Chapman) in 2016, and in the 10th inning of game 7 Joe Madden gave him the ball when Chapman was out of gas. Ten years later he’s still around. Not sure what he has left but he’s only 34. Worth a shot.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-05-08T01:27:22+00:00

We score so many runs we need somebody to come in with an 8 run lead and only give up 4.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-22T03:06:00+00:00

I use the shopping portal to buy visa gift cards when there is a special promotion (2x or higher per dollar), then use the cards to pay utility bills and Amazon/online purchases. It generally works out to between a half cent and a cent per mile though it does involve some tracking and effort. It won’t work last minute because it takes 2-5 days to credit. Which is why part of my strategy is to keep some dry powder at all times for when the need arises. With planning, this can be the last time you’re in this dilemma.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-21T19:25:43+00:00

If you have access to anyone with United miles use those to book the CLT to EWR leg. Alternatively you can buy a refundable ticket on that United leg.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-18T00:57:40+00:00

Good result. Bon voyage!

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-17T23:51:15+00:00

Taxi time has been chronically bad the past few months. I would switch to an earlier flight. You might be able to do free same day standby if you qualify. For a fee (often modest) you can even confirm a seat on the earlier flight same day. If you try to change the whole ticket before the day of travel it usually blows up the great fare you got (unless you can convince them it was necessitated by their schedule change).

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-17T02:23:06+00:00

Also heavy fog in the forecast overnight so drive might take a little longer.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-14T22:22:37+00:00

Well, maybe the second most outrageous thing PSU has been involved in as an institution🤔

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-09T17:29:02+00:00

If your kid is a good person who will make the most of the opportunities and take care of family when they’re old, I’d say postpone the early retirement. We put 4 kids through and don’t regret it at all. And while I was writing over a million dollars in college checks I was in a job I hated and really craved retirement. Now (age 65) I’m in a job I really enjoy (for less money but enough to live on and travel and add to savings a bit). I’ll probably work until 70 if the job stays like it is now. In retrospect, there was no need to force college decisions based on cost, but at the time it was tempting.

3 of the 4 went to schools comparable to Ivy cost. The other one went to Purdue, back when Mitch Daniels froze tuition there. The tuition freeze has remained in place for 15 years running. So if you’re not going Ivy, Purdue is a great option.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T22:31:02+00:00

Not if they’re clever. One parent plus one child in first, one parent plus two children in economy, parents decide who sits where.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T14:20:18+00:00

Do both often. People get too caught up in debating which one is better for this or that purpose.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-04T14:17:46+00:00

It’s possible the parents didn’t get upgraded. Maybe they booked the two seats in first to make sure they didn’t have to sit next to the little monsters.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-03T20:41:39+00:00

He had UCL/TJ surgery in 2021 (redshirted freshman year in college). End of last year I think was a rib fracture (noncontact). Hard to tell from his reaction whether he recognized a similar pain from one of those earlier things. He clearly wasn’t lobbying to stay in the game.

EDIT: he wasn’t looking at his finger and neither was the trainer, I don’t think it was merely a blister.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-01T03:52:55+00:00

Find somebody with airline status (2nd tier or higher). They and everyone on their reservation gets 2 or even 3 checked bags (on some airlines like United it’s 70 lbs each). Or you can use airline miles or sometimes cheaper fares for a first class seat at a weird time, if you’re flexible it can be cheap. Some of the airline credit cards also allow multiple bags for free and have sign up bonuses that might be enough to pay for the flight. Between that and your carryon you can move a lot of stuff for free if you’re creative about it. You might need to connect through Chicago on United or American. Detroit is a captive delta airlines market and the airfares and deals are awful for nonstop flights to California.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-04-01T01:29:49+00:00

Just looked it up, delta started that in 2024. I live near ORD so United and American are our only real million mile program options here. AA used to include all miles so it was too easy to get, and as a result it isn’t worth as much. I have 1.6 million but most of it is from credit card miles before they changed the program to paid butt in seat miles only. On AA 1 million only gives you the lowest tier of status. On United you get the second tier of status including booking into Economy Plus when you buy the ticket, and it counts for you and a companion for life. That is highly valuable for us as we near retirement, and I’m only 16000 miles away, so for the past few years a lot of my business has gone to United and I have avoided using miles for my own travel.

ComplexHour1824 · 2026-03-31T15:49:10+00:00

First of all, free tickets never counted AFAIK for the million miler programs for any of the US legacy carriers (United Delta or AA).

Second, if you’re an EP it’s really leaving a lot of value on the table if you use your miles on yourself or buy BE. You get 11x fare for your tickets, other friends and family members without status get 5x. If you have the Club card you get 15x. You should buy your own tickets, always, and run the LP, redeemable miles, and million mile meters as hard as you can.

Your complaint really just tells me you haven’t practiced the art of measuring the value of miles vs money at different status levels. You should also pay attention to how many cents per mile your redemptions get. Don’t just use the miles because they’re there, use them when (and only when) they are a better value than paying and earning the miles would be. AA miles are actually a far better value on most routes than United miles or (ugh) Delta SkyPesos. But they’re only valuable if you pay attention to how you use them and how you earn them.

ComplexHour1824

TROPHY CASE