UMTravels

This morning I booked my return flight from San Francisco to Seattle on September 20th on United. Those last 678 miles are the ones I needed to push me over the 25,000 Elite Qualifying Mile barrier to maintain my Premier status for 2010. In the progress I set a new personal best for least dollars to elite status. The old record was under $1000 on Alaska last year. The new record is $635 on United. Damn I’m good.

So I now have elite status on both Alaska and United Airlines for 2010. And I’m thinking I might get MVP Gold on Alaska since I’ve got the Hawaii trip coming up next weekend, and now Swanda is trying to talk me into a Fall-B-Que tour of the southeast. That would mean flying in and out of Atlanta which Alaska Airlines starts service to on October 23rd. The tour is basically fall colors, b-b-que, visiting friends in Kentucky, staying at the Biltmore, visiting one of his old teachers and visiting a lintype shop run by a friend of mine. If we flew down First Class on my $99 companion fare (meaning about $650 each) that would put me within striking distance of the 40,000 EQM I need for MVP Gold. Guess I’d better figure out my budget!

And since I haven’t posted a picture in a few days, here is one of the new BBQ that is going up to the cabin on Lake Cushman:

Two burners for the BBQ, plus a side burner for the beans. Additional accessories include:

• Fish cooking basket (for Neil who fishes)
• Vegetable basket (because vegetables are good for us)
• Grill cleaner brush thingee
• Big honking UW surplus spatula

Dinner tonight is a repeat of last night. Tomorrow I’ll shop for dinner for Deborah and her granddaughter who fly in from San Diego today.

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