Yesterday I took the day off and slept in until noon, effectively removing me from the cranky mood I was in and helping relieve my body of the tiredness it was afflicted with. So that was good...of course, I was reminded that I needed to buy some Claritin by my body, which spiraled into a hay fever attack. This is not good for the day before a flight. This morning I woke up free of the allergen, but with crap running around my sinuses. Let's hope that it clears my ear sinuses by the time the plane takes off.

Yes, I'm off again, this time to Austin, with Gina in tow. I'm interviewing a company down there and then heading to Norine's wedding...should be fun, as I hear Austin is a pretty kick-ass place. We're staying downtown, at any rate, so Gina should have plenty to do while I'm working tomorrow.

So, if you don't hear from me for a few days, that's why...I'm deep in the heart of Texas. Happy Cinqo de Mayo...have a margarita.

I can't communicate enough just how tired I am...after the hotel fiasco in San Francisco and the walking up and down the hills as well, followed by a four-hour flight, followed by an engagement party, followed by mini-golf bright and early (comparatively speaking, of course), followed by five more hours of walking around an expo hall, followed by a relatively poor night of sleep, followed by work.

Yep, I'm tired...and I need to go to sleep soon to catch up and be ready to roll for my first softball game of the year tomorrow evening. I'm excited about that, that's for sure... :)

Of course, once I get back on track, we'll see what a trip to Austin will do for me...

Too much to recap, so I'm going into "Laz Mode" for this post:

--Kim said thanks to everyone for mini-golfing...
But I say, thanks to everyone for mini-golfing and being heartily defeated by me. The competition was over from the start. :)

Not to mention that I golfed a LEGIT 47 in a record time of 22 minutes. Gina came in second with a LEGIT 48. Ha ha to her... :)

And ha ha to all of you who I beat. :P

Thanks for running the event though, Kim...it was loads of fun, even though I had to show up, golf as fast as possible and leave. Probably would've been cooler to stick around. But, the coolest thing is that you got a nice amount of donations. So that's what counts. :)

--The W hotel sucks. I would never have stayed there by choice, but that is where I stayed for 2 nights on my recent S.F. trip. What a freakin' useless hotel. I had an easier time finding the catalog in which you can buy all the crap in the room than I did finding the TV remote (and there was no channel guide or TV Guide-like book--morons). Snack tray in the room was nice, until I found out that everything in it had a price.

Now, I knew going in, as with most hotels, just about any "extras" have a price. But, at $250-$300 or whatever the room was (well over $200, I'm sure), I expected more free amenities. As such, the W offered nothing more than a Marriott, Sheraton or even good ol' Red Roof Inn would offer in that sense. Plus, the rooms were smaller and just not designed very well for the business traveler (which I know is not the draw of their rooms). So, less amenities, more expensive, no other real perks puts the W far down the list.

--And that doesn't even mention the rude, frightening awakenings on Thu. and Sat. mornings. The bastards got on the emergency intercom at 3am Thursday with a loud-ass beep that nearly sent me through the ceiling followed by an announcement that everything is OK, there is no need to call the front desk any longer. That's all they said. So, I was up for the next two hours, amped out of my mind and half-wondering what had been going on that now everything was OK. It turns out that the fire alarm went off somewhere in the building (or there was a glitch). But my colleagues and I wondered why the "OK" message wasn't localized. Then, it freaking happened again at 4:30am on Sat. morning. I immediately called the front desk and bitched them out, got little useful response, and attempted, again, to go to sleep. I started to doze off (less amped this time), when it happened a third time, at 5:30. By now, I had an hour and a half before I had to get up, so I just lay there.

I went downstairs to check out, and asked at the front desk (after they didn't even apologize or offer anything for our inconvenient night) if the Continental breakfast was still being offered. The woman said "yes," so I went to grab a croissant. Now, in my experience, continental breakfasts are typically included--in fact, even at, say, a Holiday Inn, some form of breakfast is typically offered. So I go over, and the guy tells me that, no, actually, all the items were for sale. I said as loudly as possible as I turned to walk away, "You mean we don't get anything for the bullshit announcements that kept us all up this morning?" and he replied with, "Sorry sir, I wasn't here." I walked away and said "That's crap," while two older businessmen who were standing there were laughing about my wisecrack.

So, I'll be calling Starwood tomorrow, looking for some sort of compensation...I mean, I'd have been happy with, "Thanks for staying with us, Mr. Hanacek. And because of our technical problems last night, please, take one item from the continental breakfast on the house." But no, nothing. Nothing but the two-year-old, "I wasn't here so it's not my fault," sissy-ass attitude.

--Otherwise, almonds are good and damn good for you, apparently. Eat them. :)