Jeff Billimek’s Journal

Today is my twenty-seventh birthday.

I stayed at Jen’s for most of the morning today. She had coffee and we talked in her kitchen and living room. I left her place around noon. The drive home was interesting because it was sleeting outside and frozen rain mixed with regular rain was raining down on my car.

I called Mom and got all her flight information so I can fly out to Denver around the same time.

Because it was lunch time, I thought about going out to get some lunch but got distracted as I researched notebook computers. After some looking around, I think the best thing to get is a ‘centrino‘ based system (or anything with a Pentium-M processor).

I started looking around at a Toshiba and HP widescreen model that wasn’t one of those monster 10-pound machines - they were around 6.5 pounds each. The specs were good: Pentium-M processor, 512MB RAM, 40-60GB HD, ‘wide’ screen LCD with a decent resolution, DVD/CDR drive, 802.11b, longer battery life (4.5+ hours), etc.

In what turned out to be a bad move, I got impulsive and decided to go to Best Buy to purchase the Toshiba. I really fancied the idea of being able to take a laptop on my trip with me. When I got to Best Buy I looked at the Toshiba as well as the HP. I liked the look & feel of the HP much better and decided to get that one instead.

I had a hard time finding someone to help me. Maybe they go through the same type of training as Abercrombie & Fitch? I finally flagged a guy down who looked like a manager. I told him that I wanted a laptop and he asked me if I’ve already talked to anyone. I replied, ‘No, I’ve already done my research and I just want to buy the laptop.’ He looked at me with skepticism but eventually asked which one I wanted. I pointed to the HP and he went to the back to get the box.

When he came out with the box, he then launched into his rehearsed speech about their silly little warranty program (for ‘only’ $250 I can have the peace of mind knowing that I dropped $250 on a worthless scam). When I didn’t appear receptive to this idea he continued to press the issue. After that he asked if I wanted to join their ‘rewards’ program in which I spend $10/year for the honor of getting more junk mail. I refused this too.

I finally said, ‘Look, I’m in a hurry and just want to purchase the laptop and go.’ He seemed to get the point but then told me that we have to go to their tech department so they can take everything out of the box and set it up for me. I politely declined and told him that I know how to use a computer already. He explained to me that they do this for my own good because if the laptop is defective or has a broken screen, I cannot return it.

This seemed a bit odd to me, so I asked for clarification, ‘If the product I buy is defective there is no recourse?’ ‘Yes’ he replied. I said, ‘No thanks.’ and walked out of the store. I wish I didn’t just waste of hour of my time.

When I got home I did some more research and am now trying to decide if I should get something a little beefy (i.e. more powerful, wider screen) or should I go with something ultra portable like the upcoming IBM X40?

Because of all the time I burnt, I never got any lunch and was now running a little late. I quickly packed for my trip. In my backpack I had my camera, lenses, sweater, fleece jacket, and my book. In my red duffle bag I had three t-shirts, ski socks, my hiking boots, underwear, ski pants, ski gloves, ski goggles, ski hat, toiletries, phone charger, and camera battery charger.

I was a bit nervous about taking two carryons since you’re only supposed to have one and a ‘personal item’ like a purse, briefcase, etc. When I got to the airport, I checked in and made my way to the gate. I was #1 on the standby list and there were about 8 empty seats in first class. Unfortunately I didn’t get to sit in first class because of that lame new automatic unlimited upgrade program.

Delta has also done something different with the boarding process that I don’t understand. Previously they would board by rows (i.e. ‘now boarding rows 30 and higher.’) Now they board by ‘zone’. There was a lot of confusion in the gatehouse as they said ‘now boarding zone 3′. Zone 3? They now print the zone on the boarding pass, but why change from rows? Maybe they don’t board from the rear of the plane anymore, but to me it seems inefficient to do it any other way.

I sat at the very front of coach class at a bulkhead seat. I forgot to bring my headphones so I couldn’t watch the movie, ‘Master and Commander‘. The flight was uneventful and I read a little of my book and slept some too. The flight was about 3.5 hours long.

When I arrived in Denver, I had a voice mail from Mom. They were running about an hour and a half late which sucked. This means that I have to wait about three hours for them to arrive. As it turns out, the Airtran flight they are arriving on is across the hallway from my gate. I walked over to the center area of the C concourse to a Mexican restaurant and ordered chips and salsa as well as a crown & coke. The chips and salsa was $1.25. With the drink, it cost $8.50. That was an expensive drink. I only had one.

Back at the gate I sat and waited. The entire C concourse (the half that I was sitting in at least) was empty. It was an errie feeling with this part of such a large airport being completely deserted. I considered snapping a photo of the scene but was too tired. I actually fell asleep for a little while as I sat at the gate.

Finally their flight arrived and I greeted them as they deplaned. We got the luggage while Jim got the rental car. He picked us up at the passenger pickup and we left the airport.

The ‘new’ Denver airport is 40 miles east of Denver so we had about a 1.5 hour drive to Keystone. As we drove over the mountains it started to snow which was pretty cool. It was also fun to drive through the Eisenhower tunnel.

We checked into the condo office and drove to our building. We had covered garage parking which was nice. The condo was very nice. They upgraded us to a three-bedroom suite. It was about 3am MDT (5am EST) so I went straight to bed. Before going to sleep, I discovered a humidifier in the closet. I filled it up with water and plugged it in. Not only did I have nice white noise but I also had humid air!