Remember to Tip the Skycap

One thing I have to finesse before our flight is the tipping of the skycap when surrounded by family who are more comfortable waiting in the check-in queue. I'm gonna attempt to leave a big tip so that they will overlook weighing our bags. It's always difficult to pay the appropriate rate for service when one's folks are around; they seem to prefer to tip based on a 1970 pricing schedule. Old rich folks don't seem to tip all that much, perhaps that explains the second adjective in their description.

Here are some of the things we've accomplished in the 72 hours as prep for our excursion:

• completed FY 2006 federal and state taxes;
• changed all bank accounts to online statements;
• update credit cards so they won't expire when we're overseas;
• renew driver's license;
  
• packed our bags, weigh them, throw stuff out and repack;
• transferred our work onto the backs of colleagues;
• get cash, separate out crisp clean bills, deposit the dirty ones;
  
• search the house for that little trinket that we (read: I) lost;
• call family one last time while on Eastern Standard Time.
  

Finally, Hanoi Life informs that Superbowl XLI will be live on cable, Monday Feb. 5th at 7 am. Like Walter Payton, that's Sweetness. The echo chamber has started in earnest concerning 'two black head coaches in the SB,' and we're only Day One of a fourteen day media countdown. It got a segment on today's NBC Nightly News.

Here's an interesting take on the hubbub: With Dungy and Smith In Super Bowl XLI, African Americans Forced To See Positive Role Models.