Yes, it’s come to this. During my 10-day adventure on a special project at work I’m blogging about the arrival of my Starwood Preferred Guest Gold membership card. I picked the Le Meridien Bora Bora for the “design your own card” choice. Now I have to go there. 🙂 In addition to the card, I received 4 “You Made my Stay” certificates to give to employees for exceptional service, and a brief guide describing the program’s benefits. I really believe that SPG’s entry level status may be among the best of the major hotel loyalty programs with their recent addition of perks like a choice of internet access, a complimentary cocktail, or bonus Starpoints.

Tuesday was a big day at work for more reasons than a special project too. As you probably know, NASA delivered the retired Shuttle Discovery to Washington Dulles for display at the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On the way to Dulles, the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, an ex American Airlines 747-123 made several passes around DC. I expected one pass around town, but there must’ve been 3 or 4. Imagine my surprise when I looked outside the office window to see the Shuttle and her 747 carrier heading directly over. A colleague was able to snap some decent photos.

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I’m trying to round up a few more shots. I still remember the first launch of Shuttle Columbia. It was big news, and it makes me just a tiny bit sad that we currently do not have a manned space flight program we can call our own.