Boy, that was - something.
Jun. 1st, 2010 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgHotel booked on priceline for four nights in San Jose: +/- $200.00 (And I got an extended stay, so it has a kitchen!)
Rental car to haul four adults and a kid up: +/- $300.00
Grocery store trips: $150.00
Um.
Gas every time we stopped (which was about 7 times): $36.00 /each
Food every time we opened our mouths outside the hotel room (about three times, yikes!): $40.00 + / each
Parking - even at the nice park we took the kid to play at: $6.00 minimum / $16 for less than five hours. That was more than once.
Turned in the big car for something smaller at the first opportunity - that was one yelling match on the phone. Being handed the phone in the middle of a screaming kid/frying pancakes/no food myself yet was another - and trying like heck to make a midway point between San Jose and Napa meetup work? That was simply despair in the making. (The phone call? Something that could have waited and couldn't be resolved until this morning regardless. Thanks for nothing, caller. At least you let me off the phone without keeping me there tap dancing for another half and hour while I told you - once again - EVERYONE IS CLOSED, SO AM I.)
Our hotel room initially was missing most of the cooking utensils, the hood light was burned out, the back burner didn't work, the sink was clogged and the plug in the tub didn't work. Oh - and there is nothing that will make me appreciate Nickleodeon and Disney Channels more than a weekend of having only Cartoon Network to work with on television. Oh my ghad, that was foul. It was insulting, mean and ugly. I mean. NO. NOT AGAIN. NEVER. I may ask to have the channel(s) removed from my own satellite service at home. That bad.
The bed was big enough for all of us - if one does not have a space-invading four year old. Unfortunately, I do. I may have slept a grand total of ten hours across the entire weekend, the last three on the floor Sunday morning. On a towel covering the floor where all the food the kid dropped during the entire weekend was. See, this is an extended stay facility. There was no maid service.
Monday morning after we packed up the car (we had been rousted at 5:30 AM, same as always, by the call of nature - ie, BOY IN MOTION), and me without four hours in the last 24 - I threw in the towel when I figured out the only money I had left was on my Starbucks card.
We went home. Got there about two-thirty in the afternoon and just started closing up the weekend, starting with turning the car in. Hey, turn it in early, save a buck or two, right?
Since I turned the car in early, I got charged double - the system changes the rate on you. That was another tromp up to customer service to beg for mercy (I got it, but) - and then home again.
To the good, I finally got up to Borderlands in San Francisco (I'd saved some bucks for this pupose in particular) where I got books, Jim got books and the boy got a picture book to read before sleeping (instead of us trying to find something other than Chowder, Adventure Time or Flapjack to endure). Lunch? Another forty dollars - and WTF $7 hot dog? Yay San Francisco.
Yes, we managed to pop in on both Fanime and Baycon (Baycon, we visited briefly - Fanime, we worked karaoke) and Fanime is still as cranked out as ever and Baycon just as full of corsets (both well-fitted and OMG SHE'S GONNA BLOW) and chill as I remembered.
Neither one was as well-attended as I recall, though. Not nearly enough time to visit with the locals - and outside of the two stints working karaoke - we went everywhere as a package deal. So no - no spare time. It's either eat, play, sleep or be in some transition period towards one of those states. We found some awesome places to play - finding some gaffers flying their RC airplanes one morning a real plus.
The weather was perfect.
And I'm back at work where I can get some rest.
Rental car to haul four adults and a kid up: +/- $300.00
Grocery store trips: $150.00
Um.
Gas every time we stopped (which was about 7 times): $36.00 /each
Food every time we opened our mouths outside the hotel room (about three times, yikes!): $40.00 + / each
Parking - even at the nice park we took the kid to play at: $6.00 minimum / $16 for less than five hours. That was more than once.
Turned in the big car for something smaller at the first opportunity - that was one yelling match on the phone. Being handed the phone in the middle of a screaming kid/frying pancakes/no food myself yet was another - and trying like heck to make a midway point between San Jose and Napa meetup work? That was simply despair in the making. (The phone call? Something that could have waited and couldn't be resolved until this morning regardless. Thanks for nothing, caller. At least you let me off the phone without keeping me there tap dancing for another half and hour while I told you - once again - EVERYONE IS CLOSED, SO AM I.)
Our hotel room initially was missing most of the cooking utensils, the hood light was burned out, the back burner didn't work, the sink was clogged and the plug in the tub didn't work. Oh - and there is nothing that will make me appreciate Nickleodeon and Disney Channels more than a weekend of having only Cartoon Network to work with on television. Oh my ghad, that was foul. It was insulting, mean and ugly. I mean. NO. NOT AGAIN. NEVER. I may ask to have the channel(s) removed from my own satellite service at home. That bad.
The bed was big enough for all of us - if one does not have a space-invading four year old. Unfortunately, I do. I may have slept a grand total of ten hours across the entire weekend, the last three on the floor Sunday morning. On a towel covering the floor where all the food the kid dropped during the entire weekend was. See, this is an extended stay facility. There was no maid service.
Monday morning after we packed up the car (we had been rousted at 5:30 AM, same as always, by the call of nature - ie, BOY IN MOTION), and me without four hours in the last 24 - I threw in the towel when I figured out the only money I had left was on my Starbucks card.
We went home. Got there about two-thirty in the afternoon and just started closing up the weekend, starting with turning the car in. Hey, turn it in early, save a buck or two, right?
Since I turned the car in early, I got charged double - the system changes the rate on you. That was another tromp up to customer service to beg for mercy (I got it, but) - and then home again.
To the good, I finally got up to Borderlands in San Francisco (I'd saved some bucks for this pupose in particular) where I got books, Jim got books and the boy got a picture book to read before sleeping (instead of us trying to find something other than Chowder, Adventure Time or Flapjack to endure). Lunch? Another forty dollars - and WTF $7 hot dog? Yay San Francisco.
Yes, we managed to pop in on both Fanime and Baycon (Baycon, we visited briefly - Fanime, we worked karaoke) and Fanime is still as cranked out as ever and Baycon just as full of corsets (both well-fitted and OMG SHE'S GONNA BLOW) and chill as I remembered.
Neither one was as well-attended as I recall, though. Not nearly enough time to visit with the locals - and outside of the two stints working karaoke - we went everywhere as a package deal. So no - no spare time. It's either eat, play, sleep or be in some transition period towards one of those states. We found some awesome places to play - finding some gaffers flying their RC airplanes one morning a real plus.
The weather was perfect.
And I'm back at work where I can get some rest.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 08:24 pm (UTC)Wasn't fit for any level of human consumption. And now they're hitting me with something that might be - yeah.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 06:40 am (UTC)Now Alan would get upset if there are no sports on!
Hope you had a nice weekend after all that!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 05:17 pm (UTC)