What Is Your Car Not Telling You?

After last week's incident of the car talking too much, this week I found out my own car had been keeping a secret for almost six years. Six years I've had the car and never knew that the back seats not only lay forward, they also flip up, creating lots more space for hauling.

Not that big a deal to most people, but I was dumbfounded that I never knew. I only found out when I was vacuuming. The dumb part is there is a three step picture that shows that on the back of the seats, but I always assumed it had to do with attaching the child seats. Why didn't my car announce that while I was driving down the road. "Hey, by the way, the seats fold up!" Who knew!

And then I found five dollars. No, really, I did. It was on the floor at the mall where I get dinner.

Waiting for the Plane to Roll Through

When I was in line waiting to go through security, there were two lines, which usually isn't the ase. I chose the shorter outside line. As we were waiting in line, three pilots come through and go to the front of our line. Then a group of flight attendants came to the front of the line. A few minutes later, a catering guy with a cart full of food went through. Then a gaggle of wheelchairs and their drivers went through. The other line continued moving and my line had to keep pausing for all these interruptions. The lady in front of me turns around and says, "I'm just waiting for the plane to roll through!"

ABCD or ACDF?

Last week when I was getting on the plane to go home, I had seat 3B. Turns out on this plane the seats were ACDF instead of ABCD. So all the Bs were homeless. You would think we could all just sit down in the row, but it wasn't so easy. We said something to the flight attendant and she said it wasn't her problem, it was the gate agent's problem, and that we had to go back and see the agent. I'm pretty sure it was her problem as the aisle was full of people who had no seat. She was by far the rudest flight attendant I've encountered lately.

The flight was also overbooked, again, not her problem, so we had to wait while they took volunteers to get off the flight. Despite all this nonsense, it might have been the closest we've been to departing on time!

What Does Your Car Say?

Have you ever heard your car talk? Probably not, because you would remember if it did. Today Erin and I were driving back from the hospital chatting away and all of a sudden the car yells "WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THE VEHICLE REPORT? CLICK OK TO CONTINUE." It was so loud and startled both of us. I can't imagine how scary it would be if you were driving along by yourself. It didn't say anything else the rest of the way home!

Bear Art - Can You Spot It?

After a very scientific study, I have concluded that all the art all over the hotel is the same. If a room only has one picture, it is the cursive L looking line drawing. If there are two pictures, it is some kind of leaf stencil. I can't think what the word is.

But this week, there is a third picture. This is actually surprising because I'm in the smallest room yet. It may be the same size as the tiny room, but something is different because the lone queen bed is shoved up against the wall. But I digress. I actually like the third picture because when I look at it I see a bear face. Can you "spot" it?

Green Keys

Being my bad green self, I like to think that all the things I leave in my hotel room, like card keys and the business cards they leave in my door, get reused. But every week I have to take one of the keys with me because I have to use it to get out of the parking garage. I usually bring it back the next week and leave it with the other key from that week. However, I have forgotten a few times and this week I have a stash of seven keys to leave behind. In case you were curious, the second one from the left is the infamous key from last week. Looks innocent, doesn't it?

I wonder what the housekeeper will think when she sees all these keys!

Things Bailey Does

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special feature, "Things Bailey Does."

In an effort to stop her from sleeping on the new comforter, I laid the plastic on top of it. Apparently that made it more appealing.


After tirelessly trying to open the item's clamshell packaging...

Bailey learned a lesson we have all discovered: it is impossible and it is better not to try.

Yaris, Car of the Future

Last week we had a Toyota Yaris, which has the unique feature of having the speedometer and all the other gauges in the middle of the dashboard. Hard to get used to - it felt a little like being on the passenger side of a car in Sydney (left side), only with a steering wheel. My co-worker said it felt like we were in a spaceship.

Sunset over Milwaukee

I forgot to post this one until I was looking at pics on my camera. I took this from the plane flying into MKE last Sunday. I'm glad my camera was close because within 30 seconds the sun had dropped below the horizon.

Revenge of the Parking Card

There are four of us here this week and we are sharing one car. At this hotel, you can have the parking added to your bill and they give you a card to get in and out. I've never had a problem with this, other than the week they deactivated it early. Til now. We have no problem getting in the garage but getting out is very trying.

There are two unattended gates that you can go out, but one is closed right now because part of the street is closed. The first day we went to leave, the card goes in and out about four times, then spits out without opening the gate. I try this a couple times. Nothing. Someone goes inside to get a new key. Try again. Same thing. Someone pulls in behind us. We tell her to back up so we can get out of the way. She says if you push the help button, they'll let you out.

Now my last experience with pushing the button was after my credit card got stuck, before I knew I could add it to my hotel bill. That took 20 minutes for them to come and I was stuck blocking the lane the whole time, and it was about 3 degrees. So I was not enthusiastic about the button pushing.

Operator: "Hello?"
Me: "Hello - my card is not working."
Operator: "Hello?"
Me: "Yes, hello, my card is not working?"
Operator: "What?"
Me: "My CARD IS NOT WORKING."
Operator: "On the machine there is a little picture of how to put it in. You must be putting it in wrong."
Me: "Umm, no, I'm not. I've tried it several times, and I've done this about 60 times this year."
Operator: "Try the other machine."
Me: "I can't - it's closed."
Operator: "Oh yeah."
Me: Pregnant pause. "So what do I do?"
Operator: "I can't do nothin'. You gotta get a new key."
Me: "We did that. It doesn't work either."
Operator: "We're not affiliated with the hotel so I can't help you."
Me: "So there is no way for us to get out?"
Operator: "I'll look and see if you've paid for the parking. What room are you in?"
Me: "701."
Operator: "What?"
Me: "701!"
Operator: "It shows you're paid through the 2nd."
Me: So you aren't affiliated with the hotel but you can see my bill?? "So can you help us?"
Operator: after not talking for a minute. "I guess I can let you out this time... What's the number of the machine?"
Me: "24."
Operator: "What?"
Me: "24!"
Me: "Thanks" and we drove off.

Fast forward one day. Key goes in and out, gate doesn't open. We try it again. It doesn't work. We back up again. Somebody goes to get a new key. Same thing. I try three more times. On the third time it works. I can hardly wait until tomorrow!

Oh, and in case you are curious... Today, July 1, the high temperature here was 63 degrees!

Go Chorizo!

At the Brewers games, they have a fairly infamous Sausage Race. It is similar to the mustard, relish, and ketchup race at the K only with a variety of sausages. I'm trying something new and posting a video. We'll see how this works.




My favorite thing is actually the line of sausages walking around the perimeter of the stadium up above the field.

We bought $10 seats and sat out in the outfield. Not a bad deal.

A note about the video - it took forever to load. Maybe not too many videos in the future.

Who Cleared the Lot?

I've been having crazy dreams the last several nights. Maybe it is the melatonin. Sunday night I dreamed that all the trees behind my house were cut down, and they were building a house there, which was already almost built when I got home. In the dream I was really mad, and I was still riled up when I got up.

It doesn't help that my neighbor in the hotel is getting a 4:10 wake up call every morning. Apparently he or she is a heavy sleeper, because the phone rings several times. I think that's when I'm having the dreams is in the hour or so after I fall back asleep.