Thrilling Thursday: Mysteries of the Diagonal Highway. Also, Priceline RULES!

I had kind of an odd thing happen this morning... I'm driving along Highway 119 into Boulder (aka the Diagonal), minding my own business, when I notice this guy gesturing to me from the van behind me.

No not like that, he was crossing his hands in front of each other, making an "X", and pointing to my bumper.

I'm slightly perplexed by this. My tire isn't flat (I have one of those magic sensors that tells you if your pressure is low or non-existent), so my only guess is that he was either gesturing to my Obama sticker (hello, it's Boulder) or to my Flying Spaghetti Monster plaque. Either way, what did the "X" mean? I mean he wasn't making an angry face, in fact it was kind of beatific and peaceful, and maybe approving... so does he *approve* of my choices of car decor? Is the crossed-hands thing some kind of unbeknownst-to-me symbol of solidarity?

Or did he want to kill me?

Any guesses?

In other news, I effing love Priceline. In realizing that although I *could* drive straight through from Boulder to Chicago, but I'd be a mess after, I decided to get myself a hotel room going to and coming back from Chicago.

I haven't used one of those online-booking places before for this purpose*, so I decided to give it a try. I looked at all the usual places, Travelocity etc., and decided to check out Priceline, since I love William Shatner. They have a feature where you can "name your own price". The way it works is, you take your chances... you designate where you want to go and what dates, then pick some parameters (I chose 2 1/2 stars or above, not only because I'm fancy like that, but because if I'm going to pay $30 for a hotel, I might as well pay $50 and not get lice), and choose a price. In this case, I put $40, and chose the $5 insurance (in case of snowstorms, otherwise you can't get a refund), gave my credit card info, and let it look...

Voila! It was accepted, and after taxes and fees I payed 57.00 for what is apparently at *least* a 100.00 room, *before* taxes. SWEET! It made my cheap little heart fairly burst with glee.

Seriously! Look at this place!

I'm psyched. We're going to leave extra early on Friday just so we can enjoy the spoils of my shopping success. There's a pool!

I haven't booked coming back yet; I tried but I think because it's more than 4 weeks out I wasn't getting the price I wanted. It's fine, they just say "price not accepted" and nothing gets charged. Since I think the closer you get to the date the more likely they are to take your offer, I'll just wait a couple of weeks and try again. Lookit me, all savvy n' shit.

* With the exception of Entertainment Book links when I had one of those...as it turned out I saved approximately $20 over the course of 2 nights stay. Woooo, the excitement is palpable. Really.