Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

The second quarter of 2011 is in the books. Am I half way to keeping my Platinum American status and Diamond Hilton status? To maintain my Platinum status on American Airlines, I need to fly 60 segments or 50,000 miles. The miles will always be difficult to get since almost all my travel is inside the United States. So far this year I have 24,340 miles (48.7% of the way there), but I have 38 segments (63.3% of the way there). So I'm looking good for Platinum status. For Hilton Diamond, I need 28 stays (a check-in/check-out at a hotel) or 60 nights to maintain my status. I haven't been able to stay exclusively at Hilton properties for every one of my trips (proximity to customer, lack of available hotels, etc). But I have managed 25 nights (41.7% of the way there) in 16 stays (57.1% of the way there). I'm looking all right based on number of stays to maintain my Hilton status. I think my travel is going to slow down for a little while, so my pace for the first half of the ye...

On my flight home yesterday, I was thinking about the states I've golfed in compared to the states I've gambled in. Before even listing out the states, I knew that I've gambled in more states than I've golfed in. There's a few reasons for that: You don't need to bring along any equipment (like clubs) to gamble - makes it easier when traveling After a full day of work, you can go to a casino for an hour or two when the sun is down - can't do that with golf Although you can do either as a single, going to a casino is a bit easier So I started listing all the states I've golfed in and gambled in during my life. From what I can remember, I have played golf in the following 7 states: Illinois (several cities), Colorado (4 cities), Michigan (1 trip, several rounds), Mississippi (1 trip, several rounds), Alabama (1 trip, several rounds), Arizona (once), and Minnesota (once). I have gambled in the following 13 states: Illinois (a few casinos plus off-track horse...

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat 4 games to 2 and won the NBA Championship last night. Before the series, I was rooting for Dallas but didn't honestly think they could win. After Miami won game 1, I really didn't think there was much hope for Dallas. I didn't watch much of the series - a little bit here and there was all. So I can't really comment on the series.