Here we go again:

In which we discover our travel pattern is, to put it mildly, in excess of what Holiday Inn expects

We’ll qualify for the top tier of their affinity program in about a month.

What good this will do, long term edition

We’ll not sure, but we’re racking up the points like there’s no tomorrow.

What good this will do, short term edition

Get us a suite at the client’s ubercheap room rate.

Sadly, neither will guarantee a baby-free flight

Our weekly flights can work almost equally well on Southwest or Continental. We’re sort of at a loss on which to go with. On the one hand, Continental will eventually put us in First Class, which is a nontrivial difference. On the other hand, SWA flies out of Hobby, has a more comfortable non-upgraded seat, and provides greater control over actual seat choice (A-group checkin is all you need, vs. buying far in advance at Continental). The deciding factor may end up being the flight times; SWA’s is slightly earlier, which makes a nontrivial difference in Sunday night exhaustion.

How you can tell Southwest is cooler than other airlines

The March issue of Spirit has Tom Fucking Waits on the cover.

Dept. of Sanity-saving devices

The Sprint broadband modem (EVDO) product works like gangbusters, and makes our life *much* nicer on the road. Highly recommended.

Of course, once we get there, we’re halfway to the client site

Why oh why is the BWI rental car location so fucking far away? It’s like a 20 minute bus ride from the terminal. It’s nuts.

How to make this not matter

Just keep the damn car over the weekend. As it turns out, renting Sunday to Friday is a whole week. Keeping the car until the following Friday — which saves half an hour, given that airport parking is actually AT the airport — is financially the same as turning the car in on Friday and renting another one on Sunday night. Score.

Things that sound neat, but really suck

“Wintery Mix.” It’s what happens when snow, sleet, and rain happen more or less at the same time. It’s just about as miserable as it sounds, and it’s absolutely no fun to drive in.