Worldcon Air Fares

I'm not sure how long they will last, but I saw an ad a few days ago promoting Southwest Airlines' new Oakland-Denver service and fare sales. Checking dates for a typical Worldcon trip for me (in the day before, out the day after), I found fares of $99 each way before taxes ($219 net). The best fare for the same dates I could coax out of United's web site was $375 net. Now, I'm planning on driving, which will almost certainly be more expensive (even factoring in that it's two people), but if you're planning on flying, you might want to check out this fare before it fills. And as far as I know, Southwest hasn't (yet) adopted United's tightwad baggage policy.

The Walk Around Quarry Lakes is Better

Today was a lovely day, and I got out and did some errands -- the first time I've been out of the house other than to take a walk around Quarry Lakes Park for the past several days. Instead of taking a walk, however, I applied myself to housework. As anyone who has ever had to share a home with me will tell you, I am not a very neat housekeeper. But eventually things get to a point where even I can't stand it anymore, and I'd reached that point in my bathroom. Using Clean Shower only postpones the evil day when the shower gets too messy even for me to tolerate. I resolved to do something I've done only once before since we moved here -- what I call a "deep clean." This requires removing the shower doors from their tracks, because I've never been able to get them or their tracks clean while they are in place.

So I set to removing doors, scrubbing them down, then setting them aside and taking on the shower and the rest of the bathroom. I had the England-NZ cricket match on in the background. About the time they should have taken their tea break, I realized that I'd been working on that bathroom for the better part of three hours and needed a break myself. They delayed their tea break for up to 30 minutes because England, having gone to pieces at bat, were down to their final wicket, and effectively the officials wanted to get the match over with rather than go for tea and then come back to have the match end one ball later. The final partnership put on a heroic stand, but just before the 30-minute extended session would have ended, NZ finally bowled England out to end up winning a match that the smart money would have laid as a draw three days ago.

With the cricket over, I returned to the Bathroom of Doom, and spent quite a bit longer scrubbing it top to bottom. I think I must have spent something like six hours total today, but it's almost as clean as when we first moved in. I'm exhausted, and there is still a lot of cleaning that needs doing in this house. In particular, the kitchen needs a similarly thorough treatment, in order to discourage the ants that continue to plague the place.

My pedometer says I logged about the same number of steps today that I would have had I gone for a walk around the lakes.

Bread Cast Upon the Waters

I had a prescription for new glasses that I've been meaning to fill for three months now. (It's not very different from my current glasses, which is why I haven't had much urgency in getting it filled.) I had a coupon good for a 30% discount at LensCrafters, but when I had stopped by their New Park Mall store, none of the frames they had suited me. They were all too small and had what I considered too-small lenses. As I was saying to Cheryl, I don't exactly wear anime girl glasses, but I do prefer oversized lenses, which I feel give me better peripheral vision.

Rather than trying to search in another LensCrafters store, I decided to give the local Site for Sore Eyes a chance, given that they'd been so nice to Cheryl. (The last time Cheryl was in California, her glasses needed repairing, and we stopped by the Site for Sore Eyes store at the Hub in Fremont. They repaired her glasses at no charge, even though she hadn't bought them there.)

I was pleased when not only was the first pair they showed me just the sort of thing I was looking for, but they offered to match the 30% discount that LensCrafters was offering. So I probably ended up spending about the same as I would have done, got glasses I like better than I would probably have settled for elsewhere, and gave my business to people who had been nice to us. And I was able to charge the cost to my prepaid healthcare FSA card, so I'm not even out of pocket any money. A nice deal all around, that was.