Travelodge Mesa Suites - Mesa, Arizona

Ok, so it's pretty obvious that I'm not posting much anymore.. I apologize, it's just that with the way my schedule is I just can't fit it in. I am in Mesa, Arizona for ShoreTel training and I just want to share the pics of the hotel that I was initially staying at. I immediately found a way to get out of that hotel and moved to an Extended Stay America which is so much better. Here's the Pics:



As you can see, this place is not fit for human occupation.. So, if you're ever in Mesa, Arizona, avoid the Travelodge Mesa Suites at 4244 Main St. This isn't even half of it, there was hair that didn't belong to me on the towels and on the toilet and there was something gritty in the bed so I assume it wasn't very clean. The price for this hotel on Sunday night (due to the Super Bowl being in town) was listed at $400, the price my boss paid was around $270 and the cost per night for the rest of the week was supposed to be $89... With prices like that and the pictures that are on the hotel's website you would think that the hotel was a decent place..

To top it all off, I made a reservation with Discount Cab in Phoenix for 7:00 yesterday morning. I placed the call for the reservation on Sunday night so I assumed that the taxi would arrive promptly at 7am. As 7:15 rolled around I began to get worried because I had to be at training by 8:00am so I called the cab company and asked about the status of my cab. I was told that they were trying to get me a cab and that they were very busy because of the people leaving town after visiting for the Super Bowl. SO.. 7:30, still no cab, another call and the same answer. 7:45, STILL NO CAB.. Same thing when I called.. I started calling around to other cab companies and they all had a wait of 30mins to an hour and a half. 8:15, NO CAB... Called the company again, same answer, still trying to get a cab for me.. Finally at around 8:40 the cab arrived and I got to my training.. Needless to say, I made a reservation with a different cab company for the ride from my training to the new hotel. This cab company was called Union Cab Co. and they even called me at 4:30p to confirm my reservation for 5:00p and already had a cab on the way.. The cab was late due to traffic but it was a reasonable amount of time based on the time of day and the traffic conditions in Phoenix. The cab driver apologized for being late and I told her that it was nothing compared to the wait this morning. She immediately replied "who did you reserve the cab with, Discount Cab?", this tells me that it's a common thing to have that type of problem with Discount Cab.. She went on to say that she used to work for them and that they care more about serving the older people with medicare vouchers than they do about paying customers. She also told me that even if I were to place the reservation a week ago, the taxi driver and the dispatcher don't know about it until 15 mins before my scheduled pickup. The Phoenix area is pretty large and has a lot of suburbs so 15 mins is not enough time to get anywhere. To make a long story short, today I am renting a car because the cab rides are $30 each way and I can rent a car for $35 a day..

-Jack

#16 - Me...

So, like I said.. I didn't get out of the office much yesterday.. We actually had a guy coming in to interview for a sales position to sell the ShoreTel phone systems so my boss asked me to dress nice because he wanted to make a good impression. I'm all for wearing a button up shirt and tie and since I knew that I wouldn't be leaving the office much I didn't have a problem with it. My normal daily attire consists of slacks and polo shirts so I'm never really dressed "down" but I do feel more professional wearing a button up and tie. Unfortunately my job requires a lot of activity at times that would make wearing this clothing a pain.

The down side of having the guy interview yesterday was that he came around noon so my boss offered to buy us lunch and asked if I would pick it up. I'm not one to pass up a free meal and I wasn't going to leave him in a bind with needing to get the food to the office so I accepted his offer and went and got lunch for the 3 of us. We ordered from Pei Wei which surprisingly isn't terrible for you. Even still, I looked over the nutrition information to make my decision and wound up getting a meal that I wouldn't regret too much. Their meals are actually somewhat low in calories, the only thing is that every meal is 2 servings so you have to make sure you don't eat it all. I'm not sure about the sodium content because it's not listed (imagine that from an Asian restaurant) but I got the Teryaki Chicken bowl with udon noodles instead of rice because they seem to be the best for you.

I don't think I ever posted that I lost 10lbs last week.. The thing is, my weight normally fluctuates between 310 and 300 and I weighed in at 300 on Monday so it's hard to tell what my actual weight loss is but I did lose 2 inches in the waist. I know that 10lbs is huge and it won't/can't happen every week, my goal is actually 3lbs a week.

-Jack

#15 - Ducks in a row

Sasha and I did a "photo walk" near downtown Waco this weekend and we took quite a few pics.. I saw all of these ducks sitting along the ledge and I instantly thought of the saying "All my ducks in a row"...

I haven't been out of the office much this week so not all of my pictures will be from the day of the post. I am going to try my hardest to post pictures that are from the day of the post, it's just that when I don't leave the office there's not much to take pictures of.. Today will probably be the same, I've got a 4 hour training conference (web) covering ShoreTel systems administration so I most likely won't be leaving the office much today either.

-Jack

#14 - Red Ring of Death

I know, I know.. It's a photo blog.. It's just that I got this great new toy (flip video recorder) for Christmas and I haven't had much of a chance to play with it.. When my XBOX 360 decided to give me the infamous Red Ring of Death (RRoD)I decided right then that it would be a good time to get to play with the flip.

Oh.. did I mention that my XBOX gave me the RED RING OF DEATH...

Here's the story.. I bought my first 360 in November of 2006 (1), it gave me the RRoD shortly after purchase and I was able to exchange it at Wal-Mart for a new one (2). Brought the new one home, played it for around a month or two.. RRoD.. Again.. Took it back to Wal-Mart, the service desk associate accidentally refunded me the money instead of offering an exchange. I told the associate that it was fine and I would purchase another one at a later date... I did this thinking that I could purchase one at Best Buy because I thought maybe they handle their freight better than Wal-Mart (Yeah.. electronics tend to get thrown around while unloading a Wal-Mart truck.. Trust me I used to work there).. Anyways.. I get a new one (3) at Best Buy, take it home, play it for about 6 hours and it actually gouges my Gears of War disk to the point of being un-playable, also RRoD quickly after that.. So I took both the console and the disc back to Best Buy and got them both replaced (4).. I was told that there was a man who actually tried out 3 consoles in the store before he left and got the RRoD on every single one.. So, I brought the new one home, played it for around 6-8 months and then out of nowhere RRoD.. Took it to Wal-Mart for an exchange (Best Buy probably wouldn't exchange after that long) got a new one (5) and it's lasted me until now..

I am fixing to be on my 6th XBOX 360 in a little over a year.. I don't abuse it, I don't MOVE it, it sits next to my TV and I play it.. That's all.. I hardly even change games because I usually stick to the same game for a while.. I hadn't played for at least a week before this weekend and then I played for a total of about 2 hours this weekend and got the RRoD.. Somebody please tell me why there isn't a massive recall on these machines.. Am I the only one with this much trouble? I have a few friends who've had 1 or 2 RRoD but 5?!?! Does the fact that there is a term for this problem not bother anyone?

-Jack

#13 - The Brazos Belle ... - - - ...

The Brazos Belle used to be a fancy restaurant on the Brazos River in Waco. Due to extremely high amounts of rain this summer, the Brazos River rose very rapidly and caused flooding of a lot of areas of Waco. The Brazos Belle actually has a system in place for allowing it to rise and fall with the River but the owner of the restaurant failed to loosen the ties which held the ship down and caused it to flood. Below you can see a picture showing how it stands right now... Here is an article explaining things about the ship a little better. It's kind of sad to see something that was once considered a very nice place to eat become just an eye-sore for people passing by on I-35.


-Jack

#12 - Sunset in Lorena, Texas

Sasha's aunt and uncle invited us to their house to eat dinner and play poker last night, this was taken out of their driveway right when we got there. They have an excellent view from their house and I wish we would have been there a little earlier so that I could have caught a better sunset. Either way, dinner was great and poker was very fun.. It was a little different than usual because usually we enjoy a few cocktails while we play, but 1 shot of Jack Daniels is about 65 calories and then you add the Coke and it's even worse.. Of course we could have drank it with Coke Zero or another diet variety of the cola, but even still it just wouldn't be worth it..

-Jack

#11 - Burnout - Paradise City Demo (XBOX 360)

I haven't played my XBOX 360 at all this week so today I decided to go ahead and play for a while.. With my schedule so full there's been no time for me to play and honestly I haven't had the desire to play instead of doing something more productive...

-Jack