I went to Chicago this week to watch the Cubs in the playoffs. Got tickets to both of the first two National League Division Series (NLDS) games at Wrigley Field.



So they lost both games, which was a major bummer. But I had a fun time with my friends around town and at the games, which made it all worthwhile.

Photo Album: Cubs Playoffs 2008

You know how Southwest Airlines has those ads where they compare their fares to other airlines? How other airlines have tons of hidden fees and those other airlines' advertised rates don't match the real ones. For shame on those other airlines and their trickery!

I'm making tentative plans to go to Chicago next week to see the Cubs in the playoffs. To get an idea of what plane tickets cost, I checked out southwest.com and entered a flight from Omaha to Chicago Midway. Results:


Sweet, sixty bucks! So I clicked on it, and:


Whoa whoa whoa, that's nearly twice the price! I checked the radio button RIGHT NEXT TO THE $59 AMOUNT, doesn't that mean it's, about, $59?

So what's the deal here?

Oh duh, the "fare combinability rules," of course! You mean when I select a one-way ticket and it's advertised at $59, but:

Some fares that we offer may not be combinable with all of our other fares.

This may mean that the type of fare you selected for your Outbound flight cannot be purchased with the type of fare you selected for your Return flight.

Below are some of the fare types that cannot be combined with one another:

* Senior Fare + Web Only Fare
* Senior Fare + DING! Fare

*Note: A Price change message may also occur if you are selecting your flights/fares at a time when we are updating our online fare systems.

That's right, the outbound flight that wasn't even mentioned in the equation. Or maybe their systems were updating! So the next six times I tried it, the fare doubled in between loading the page and clicking submit?

Oh well. At least there aren't any hidden fees!


Well, beyond the six bucks that get tacked on between that step and the next.

Bah. Scumbags.

While watching an Atlanta Braves game on TV years ago, I accidentally hit the SAP button. Suddenly it was two guys announcing the game in Spanish. While it was almost completely unintelligible to me, I kept the SAP on because it was more enjoyable than listening to (the late) Skip Caray.

On a number of sports broadcasts since then, I've tried this technique when the announcers weren't worth listening to. Since then, no such luck with SAP - the English-speaking announcers kept blathering on. And I just can't go and mute it, because the sounds of the game are enjoyable. (See "Silence is Golden")

Fast forward to this week. I was watching an episode of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Unleashed on my DVR and the plastic smile of announcer Mike Goldberg appeared on the screen. The background music was playing, but as his lips were moving, a delightful silence came from his mouth. After checking other channels and examining my DVR settings, I found I had the Digital SAP set to "Espanol".

The rest of the show continued without any commentary. I could still hear the crowd, the punches, the kicks, the slams, Big John McCarthy's "let's get it on"... all without announcers. It was sweet! I sort of missed the insights of Joe Rogan ("fighting this guy is like fighting a chimp", "looks like he's got this guy in the donkey guard") but it was awesome to hear all the sounds of the ring like I was there.

And hey! I will be there.

now if only i could mute bruce buffer too

Went to Chicago this weekend. Had a fun time with everyone, the Cubs won, and I got to sample a nice cross section of Chicago bars restaurants.

Five of us met at Wrigley Field for the Cubs game on Saturday. The first two of us were only able to start looking for seats in the (general admission) bleachers about ten minutes before game time. Guh. How were we supposed to find a row with five empty seats?, I said rhetorically. We looked through the bleachers and miraculously found an empty spot - in the second row of the right field bleachers!

As it turned out, these seats saw some action. The Cubs right fielder, Kosuke Fukudome, lofted a ball into the stands towards us between innings. The guy in the row behind us reached for it... and dumped his beer on us, most of it drenching Annie. [frowny face]

Later on, Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez hit a ball that sliced towards us and was caught by someone two rows right behind us! If it's any consolation, Annie, you may recall that the beer-spilling gentleman behind us was bitching about how his hand hurt trying to catch the ball. It's fan karma.

I took some photos, they're here:

Photo Album: Chicago 2008b

My sister Kim got married this weekend! In a ceremony at St. Paul's church in downtown Lincoln, Kim and Justin Mahrt were wed.

I'm still having trouble whenever I have to type "Kim Mahrt". :)

I was fortunate to have had a hand in many aspects of the wedding day. I was a groomsman, did a reading during the ceremony, played guitar accompaniment for the singer, and put together a slideshow presentation that was played at the reception.

If you were at the reception and would like to see the slideshow again, I can give you a copy. If you weren't there and would like to see it, I can give you a copy. Just e-mail me.

I took a few photos throughout the day:

Photo Album: Little Sister's Wedding

let's try that again: kim ru^H^Hmahrt

The Cubs traded one of their pitchers away. Scott Eyre, who was pretty good for the Cubs the last two years, hasn't had such a great year and was traded to Philadelphia. The blurb on Cubs.com by Carrie Muskrat had this to say:

The Cubs had designated Eyre for assignment on Tuesday, giving the team seven days to trade him before he became a free agent. On Wednesday, he packed up his family in his RV and headed to his home in Bradenton, Fla.

...

He'll need the paycheck. The RV gets eight miles to the gallon, and he's spent nearly $800 filling it up for the drive from Chicago to Florida.

Oh. Boo. Hoo, Muskrat.

The guy will make $3.8 million this year. He pulls in $800 every couple of hours.

at least he doesn't have to feed latrell sprewell's family