I wrapped up my trip to Costa Rica and I’m now in Atlanta for the night. Unfortunately, there’s no way to fly from Costa Rica to Grand Cayman in one day on Delta. The Cayman flight leaves at like 10:20 AM EST which is 8:20 AM Costa Rica time (at this time of year). So, since there’s only one flight to Cayman per day (and some days no flights to Cayman), that rules out going in one day. Normally I would fly American through Miami but this trip was enough to put me into the Delta Medallion club for the rest of this year and all of next year. That means I’ll get first class upgrades, zone 1 boarding, faster check-in line, ability to book exit row seats, etc. Being the lowest level (silver) of Delta’s Medallion program isn’t a huge deal but I wanted to make sure that I got it. So… here I am in an Atlanta airport hotel.

My trip to Costa Rica revolved mainly around two things. First, I am trying to sell my condo in Escazu. I met with a bunch of real estate agents and now hopefully they’ll do what they can to get it moved. I am not in a huge rush or anything but I would like to move it before the end of the year (hopefully). I also put my Toyota 4Runner up for sale while I was there. That had better sell by the end of the year. In general it seems much easier to move a car than to move a condo — but even moreso in Costa Rica.

The second thing the trip revolved around was Poker Terms. As my loyal blog readers might remember, about a year ago I started the Poker Terms website and, with the help of a number of great term writers, I’ve been working on it on and off for the last year to build it into a more comprehensive poker lingo database. There are still many terms missing but it’s been over 1,000 terms for a few months now so it’s one of the most (or maybe THE most) complete poker terms resources online. I met with a new employee of ours who is going to be helping me to take the site to the next level. We’re just getting started on a redesign and there are a number of things we’re working on in the interim to get the site ready for the new layout and new features.

Other than those two things, I didn’t do much else other than go to the gym, watch TV and sleep. The only other thing of note was a trip to the ONLY public bowling alley in Costa Rica. There are a few others but they are private lanes in country clubs. So we drove about 40 minutes to an area called San Pedro and went to a place called Boliche Dent. I’ll admit that I did not have high expectations for a bowling alley in Costa Rica. I expected a total shithole to be honest. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The place was actually pretty nice and there were relatively few problems with the equipment and lanes. About 15 of us went out to bowl and we had two lanes.

Adam Small (from P5s) suggested that we do a winner-take-all bet where we each put in 10,000 colones (about $17 at today’s exchange rates) and the highest score won. We managed to get five people to enter. Myself, Adam, JD (BubbaKGB from P5s), Scott (our Content manager) and Nelson (our Customer Service manager). The first game I jumped out to a big lead around the 5th frame because I had a turkey along with a few spares. I cruised to a 173 and I don’t think anyone was within 30 pins. Ship the 40,000 colones. Then we bowled again and I was way off. I think I had four open frames in the first five frames. By that point, myself, JD and Scott were out of it and Nelson and Adam were neck and neck for the lead. Nelson ended up pulling it out with some clutch shots (rolls? I’m not sure what the term is) and he managed to score 183 for the high score of the night. That reduced my profit to 30,000 colones.

But, during the end of the last game, I knew I was not going to win the winner-take-all so I made a bet with another employee of ours named Jerry. There was a speed gun of some kind on the lane which told you the speed of your last shot. Typically, people were throwing somewhere in between 16 and 23 km/hr according to the scoreboard. I tried a few of throwing as hard as I could and I was getting like 30 or 31 km/hr. After the 8th frame, I bet Jerry 5,000 colones even money that I could top 33.5 km/hr. I was not confident that I would actually do it. During my 9th frame, I think I bowled twice around 31 km/hr. For those shots, I only put my fingers into the ball and not my thumb because I thought it would make it faster. However, after that, I realized I might be able to throw it faster with my thumb so I switched up techniques for the 10th frame. My first shot in the 10th frame was something like 31.5 km/hr which was still pretty far away from where I needed to be to win. So, obviously, for my second shot in the 10th frame I loaded up and gave it everything I could. When I let it go, I was pretty sure I’d thrown another one in the 31s. Maybe 32 at best. But then, amazingly, the scoreboard somehow read 34.95!! Sick. I got a picture of it:

As you can see, I bowled a very elite 81. But, given that my last four frames (two before the bet and two for the bet) were simply attempts at speed, that isn’t QUITE as bad. I’m pretty sure there was something wrong with the speed gun on that shot because I really don’t think it was 34.95. Either way though, I won the bet because there was no way for us to know what the speed actually was with absolute certainty.

So, tonight I’m in Atlanta. I went straight from the airport to Best Buy. Then I went to Moe’s for a burrito and then hit up CVS for a few essentials. After that I went to the airport hotel where I am now. Here are a few interesting conversations that I want to relay. First, at the Best Buy I was looking for a DVI to HDMI converter. I couldn’t find anyone in the computer dept so I stopped at customer service on the way to the register. It went something like this:

Me: Hi, I am looking for a DVI to HDMI plug converter and I can’t find anyone in the computer dept. Do you know if you carry them?
Customer service lady: (blank stare) Ummmmm, a what?
Me: A DVI to HDMI adapter, it’s a plug converter so I can plug my monitor into my laptop.
Customer service lady: I don’t know what that is, can you find someone in the computer dept?
Me: I looked, no one is there… (sidenote: This was 15 minutes before they closed)
Customer service lady: Sorry, I don’t know what to do.
Me: Okay, I give up
Customer service lady: Cool.

It was extremely uninspired service. I don’t know if I could convey the tone of our conversation in my summary but I don’t think she could have possibly cared less. Not only does she work at a Best Buy in customer service while being completely unaware of the meaning of the acronyms DVI and HDMI, she also doesn’t even care to try to help customers who are looking to buy a product. And she works in customer service.

I’ve been pretty unimpressed overall with Best Buy lately. I called up the “Premier Silver” Reward Zone number (admittedly, Premier Silver only means you spent $2500 in the last year but that’s their highest level so…. it should mean something) and made a pretty simple receipt request. They said they would get it to me in three days. Over two weeks later, no response. I’ve called a few times in the meantime and each time they extend the period of time required for my receipt request. It’s gone from a three day project to a 7-10 day project to a 14 day project. I am somewhat doubting I’m ever going to get a copy of that receipt. I need it for my taxes so I’d better get it soon…

Oh, and the other conversation I’d like to relay. When I was checking in to the hotel…

Front Desk person: Okay, here’s your key and breakfast is at 7am.
Me: Are there instructions in the room for how to use the wifi or do I need a code of some kind? (it’s a pet peeve of mine having to go back to the desk just for a wifi code)
Front Desk person: The internet is all wireless here.
Me: (blank stare) So there’s no code to get on?
Front Desk person: Nope, it’s all wireless.
Me: (blank stare) Oooookay, thanks.

At least this woman doesn’t work at Best Buy. I don’t expect her to know anything about technology.

Good night.

Related posts:

1. In Atlanta
2. Hilarity at the Atlanta airport
3. Atlanta Area Toll Roads
4. Las Vegas
5. A big announcement