Matt Holthe's Fleeting Thoughts

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has reclaimed its title as the world's busiest airport for the first time since 2004. Mayor Rahm Emanuel made the announcement Wednesday in Chicago during the World Routes 2014 convention, which the mayor's office described as the largest business-to-business aviation event. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, more than 580,000 flights departed or landed at O'Hare from January to August. International passenger volume is up 8 percent at O'Hare in the first half of the year, the mayor's office said. "O'Hare isn't just the busiest airport in the world, it's an asset for the City of Chicago," Emanuel said. "These new gains will help us attract new businesses and solidify our place as the best connected city in the U.S. and around the world." http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory/ohare-reclaims-title-worlds-busiest-airport-25751643

Back in July  I posted about our leaky roof. It still hasn't been fixed yet. We are now on our 5th (I think) company to try and get this fixed. People are horrible about returning calls. We finally have a signed contract with a company and (after I called them to find out what was going on - ugh) they said all the paperwork is in and we're in the system. Depending on weather and other jobs, it could be a few days to a few weeks before they get to our house and get it fixed. IIRC, the date we first saw the leaky roof was June 7. So Sunday will officially be 3 months since we noticed the issue and it still isn't fixed. Some pretty bad customer service in the roofing industry.

My wife and I had a fairly quick trip to Las Vegas. We left last Wednesday, and returned last Saturday morning. So we really only had 2 1/2 days there. I had success gambling. The first day I lost at penny slots and won at blackjack, for a net win for the day. The second day I hit a really big jackpot on penny slots (over $160 on a single 40 cent bonus round). I lost some on blackjack and video poker that day, but ended up a net winner. And the final day I lost a little on penny slots and won on blackjack, so I ended up a net winner that day as well. All in all, I still have to keep my day job, but it's nice to come back a winner when going to Vegas.

 It's been a while since I last posted. Over the last couple of months, we have been fighting a leaky roof. I thought I knew where it was; put some caulk up there. That wasn't it. Called someone to come check it out and they said it would be at least $2,000 to fix. So I tried again and found a spot that was really promising. Put a bunch of caulk there. Today went back up in the attic and the bucket to catch the dripping has some water in it. So I failed again. Guess we have to fork over the money to the professionals.

My wife and I are going to head out to Las Vegas in a few months. Yes, it will be real hot out there, but that's how things worked out with timing of vacation and other commitments. We're excited to have a trip by ourselves, and especially to have one to Las Vegas.

I had a quick trip to Las Vegas. I didn't do all that good gambling, ended up losing $100. I had one very interesting hand playing $20 blackjack, though. On this hand, I had a $2 tip for the dealer next to my hand.  I get dealt 2-2 against a dealer's 4. Split. First 2, get a K. Stand. Second 2, get another 2. Split again (now 3 hands, 1st one is standing on 12). Second hand, get a 7. Hit, get a 6 for 15. Stand. 3rd hand, get another 2. Now I'm at 4 hands - $80 on the table for me and $8 on the table for the dealer. On the 3rd hand, get a 9. I have to double down on my 11. I only had a single $1 chip left, so dealer got a "double for less". I have $100 on the table, she has $9. On my double, I get a 5 for 16 total. On the last hand, I get a 3, drew a couple times, ended up with 16. So at this point I have 4 hands - 12, 15, 16, and 16. I need help, right? Dealer busts. Made a cool Benjamin on that hand (but also "lost" an extra $7 on tip money....) Wi...

Once again this year, I bet the line and total for all 67 games of the NCAA Tournament. I didn't do the money line this year. The results were rather depressing. 45% correct - 58-71-5. I was much better at totals (over/under) than lines. On totals, I was 35-32. On lines, I was 23-39-5, which is a dismal 38%. Good thing I didn't make it to Vegas for this year's tournament. I obviously wouldn't place money on every single game like I did in this exercise, but I can't imagine that I would have done that much better to make any money on the games I would have bet.

The NCAA Championship game is tonight. It features 7 seed Connecticut versus 8 seed Kentucky. To show how much I know, I picked both of those teams to lose their first game in the tournament. It's the highest combined seeds between the 2 championship game participants. A 7 seed has never won a national championship, and an 8 seed has only won once (a long time ago). So history will be made tonight.

I have a trip to Southern California coming up. Since I haven't been to Las Vegas in a long time, I'm making a side trip to Sin City. I'll only be there for less than 24 hours, so I have to make the most of it. I will be there for one dinner, and I think that should be at Secret Pizza . After dinner, I think I'll head down to see the Mirage Volcano . I will obviously see the High Roller Wheel , but I don't think I'll ride it this time. I'll just look at it and take pictures. Since it's been a while since I've been there, I might be spending a decent amount of time just walking around and seeing what has changed. I haven't been to The Linq , so I'll want to walk around there. Obviously, it's never a bad idea to see a Bellagio Fountain Show . Since I'll be driving from Southern California, I think I should stop on my way into town and take a picture of the Welcome to Las Vegas Sign . Anything else I should do?

In the past, I have posted about my 4 Las Vegas trips during the first weekend of March Madness here and 1 trip during the second weekend of March Madness here . In 2013 I didn't go anywhere except going out with friends to watch the games at some bars in town. 2014 was the same as 2013 - going to bars in town to watch the games during the day. So that means that I haven't been to Las Vegas for the first weekend of March Madness since 2007, and at any point in the tournament (second weekend) since 2010. That's a huge drought in terms of Las Vegas - I probably won't even recognize the city the next time I get back there.

In honor of the NCAA basketball tournament going on, here are the rule changes (some minor, some major) that I would implement if I was given "free reign" over NCAA basketball: Held ball alternate possession is in effect for the first half and first 16 minutes of the second half. In the last 4 minutes of the second half and in any OT's, a held ball results in a jump ball situation. If there is an "official review" needed of whether a shot was a 2-pointer or a 3-pointer, that review is done during a time out prior to the last 4 minutes of the second half. There is no need to take the time immediately in the 1st half to see if 1 more or less point is needed. That can be done during the next TV timeout. Just signal the official scorer that a review will be needed. If there is an "official review" of any sort at any point in the game, the 5 players for each team must stand between the coach's box and half court line. And the only person from the b...

Last year (when the Ravens met the 49ers) set a record for the amount of money bet (handle) on the Super Bowl. This year it exceeded that amount BY 20 PERCENT! Wow. It went way up. A record $119.4 million was legally wagered on Super Bowl XLVIII at the state’s sports books, according to state figures. Sports books won close to $19.7 million on Super Bowl XLVIII, the Nevada Gaming Control Board announced on Monday. The sports books' cumulative profit of about 16.5 percent was the biggest return the state’s regulated books have seen since the Patriots defeated the Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX (February 6, 2005). The safety on the first play of the game put the bookmakers in a huge hole right away (50 grand at the Orleans). There was a 2 point conversion, a defensive touchdown, a special teams touchdown, and the safety was the first score -  all those "flukey" prop bets paid off and were a killer for the books, but with all the public money on Denver, the books didn't ...

Last November 8, our cat Pepper went in for surgery to have a mass removed from the base of his tail. It turned out to be cancerous. Because of the location, they couldn't do the "usual" of removing extra tissue to make sure they get all the cancerous tissue. So it came back. Today he's going in for round 2 of surgery. He again will have the "cone of shame" around him for a week and a half or so. The vet and I both agree that one more chance at getting this is worth it. We aren't going to do a third surgery - either this one does the trick or we'll just wait to see how he progresses living with it.

On Saturday (January 11), my dad moved from my house into assisted living. He ended up staying with us for nearly 2 months. Hopefully he does well in assisted living - after a couple of days, he seems to be doing all right, but you never know. He is down to 1 artery in his heart, and that one is partially blocked (the other 2 are 100% blocked). So he wouldn't be able to take care of himself, which is why assisted living made sense. As for his house from the tornado damage, it is basically livable at this point. The windows finally were put in and the siding finished over the past weekend (it had been too cold to do the windows before then). There is still a hole in the roof, but that is over the garage, so it doesn't affect living arrangements. We are actually going to rent out the house to a family who had their house destroyed by the tornado. That will give them time to rebuild, and give my dad a little extra income while he is in assisted living. After the renters have...

It has been a very eventful last few weeks. On November 17, a tornado ripped through my home town of Washington, IL. My niece and her mom (my brother's ex-wife) had their house completely destroyed. My childhood home was damaged, but is still standing (the house next door is only partially standing). My dad's house had a decent amount of damage (windows blown out, hole in the roof, fence ripped apart, some other things). My brother's house had some minor damage. I was able to make it in that afternoon and board up my dad's windows with the help of some family members. My dad wasn't actually in the house when the tornado hit because he was in the hospital. He had a minor heart attack and spent several days in the hospital. When he was released, he couldn't go back to his house for two reasons: (a) the house wasn't livable because of the tornado damage and (b) he wasn't strong enough to take care of himself. My dad has progressed some with his health, ...

I am now back from my Spain trip. The trip ended up putting me over the AA status for miles (I'm still one segment short, but since I got there on miles, it doesn't matter) and I have my status on Hilton for next year. Next year might be a down year for travel. I have been assigned to a couple accounts to do stuff remotely. So it might be the last year that I maintain the high level of status for both flights and hotels. That's fine with me - I could use a break from travel. Spain was beautiful. My work was in the northern part of Spain, and that was green and had mountains and the food was amazing. Then I spent a couple days in Madrid, which was very different. The architecture was amazing and there is a lot of history there. I was also able to spend a few hours in London during an overnight layover. I really want to go back there and spend more time - that city is amazing. (But it's really expensive). A three hour cab tour through the city just didn't do it ...

Looks like I'll be set for status for 2014 on both American and Hilton. With Hilton, I either have my status already or I'm 1 stay short (the web site says I'm 1 stay short, but I think my stay last week is still pending). Either way, I have a Hilton stay on the books for a couple weeks from now, so that will put me over the top if I need it. With American, I'm 6 segments short. And I have 6 segments scheduled for an international trip. Hopefully all those come through - since it's an international flight, at the very least it will take a while to post. But even though they are code share flights, they should correctly post to my American account and it will get me there. Even if a couple of them don't post, as long as the flights over the ocean post, I'll get there based on miles. And there should be a couple more trips before the end of the year, so I'll have some cushion. I think 2014 will see a slow down in trips, and I might not make status ...

I was recently thinking about what it would take to make sports betting your job. First off, you would have to be really good at picking games against the spread (ATS). Let's just assume for now that you can predict the winner ATS right in football and/or basketball (NCAA or Professional) correctly 65% of the time. To keep the math a bit simpler, let's say you bet the same amount (call it "x") on every game. Realistically, I think a professional sports better is going to be "more sure" about some games and bet more heavily on those games, but we would have to make more assumptions (how often that happens, how much bigger those bets are, and so on). So let's stick with the same bet on every game. When you lose the game (35% of the time), you lose "x". When you win the game (65% of the time), you win an amount that is slightly less than the original bet. For most casinos, if you make a $110 bet, you win $100, which is 90.90909% of the origina...

It looks like I'm going to have a trip to Spain coming up for work. Trying to figure out if my wife can come along. We have to figure out if someone can watch our daughter for the better part of a week, which is not a minor obstacle. The next hurdle is using miles for my wife's flight. The first option I looked at had a flight to Chicago, then to Dusseldorf, Germany, then to Spain (but not the final destination). 4 flights - ugh. There were options with 5 flights, even. The return had the same route, but the Dusseldorf layover was an overnight layover (like 10 PM to 10 AM the next day). Sleep in the airport? Go through customs in Germany for a 7 hour sleep in a hotel bed? Ugh. If I change things up a bit by going to another destination in Spain, then the options are much better. There's still an overnight stay on the way home, but it's in London, and the flight to London arrives a little after noon. So we could go through customs in London (where we at least speak the...

As an update to my previous post about Disneyland timing, the Fantasmic show is now listed for a couple of days of our visit, along with Fireworks at night. So we switched around our planning a bit and should be able to make both shows on one visit. We have to figure out the best way to see both on the same night (Fantasmic starts at 9:00 PM, lasts 20-25 minutes, and then the fireworks start at 9:30).