6,321 Miles to Rome. And Now We Wait.

Italy Travelog #1
SFO Airport - Friday, 23 May 2025, 12:15pm

We've started our trip to Italy. We're approximately 0.5% of the way there! Yup, we're waiting in the United Club Lounge at SFO. And we've got a while to wait. It's just past noon now, and our flight doesn't depart until almost 5pm.

Why come so early? Well, we thought the lounge would be a decent place to relax, with a bit of free food and space to get some work done without worrying about whether there'd be rush hour traffic later in the day. Well, we definitely solved for the "avoid rush hour traffic" part of the equation, but the lounge isn't exactly relaxing. It's overcrowded. Like, people are hovering for chairs like people hovering for parking spaces at Costco on Saturday afternoon. And the food? What little there is gets picked apart almost as soon as a new dish is brought out.

Maybe the crowd in the lounge is a lunch time thing, with people packing in here hoping to skip the outrageously priced slop served in the fancy-looking restaurants out in the terminal. ...Speaking of which, Hawk and I spent $60 for lunch on a shitty knockoff of Panda Express. I threw my plate out slightly more than half eaten.

Not a great start to this trip. We'll see if it improves soon.

Better Call Saul 6.07: Howard's End, part 2

In episode 6.07 of Better Call Saul, Jimmy and Kim culminate their plot to discredit their former boss/nemesis and now punching bag, Howard Hamlin. They cause him to embarrass himself in front of numerous lawyer peers, cementing in many of their minds the innuendo the plotters have been spreading that Howard is using cocaine. But that's not the end of it for Howard.



Howard pays an unplanned visit to Kim's apartment (where Jimmy lives) that night. He's visibly drunk. He's figured out all the things they did in their plot against them. He criticizes them for not concealing it too well. "But that was the point, wasn't it?" he asks. "You wanted me to know."

Howard offers a bottle of whisky he's brought as a victory celebration. Kim and Jimmy aren't interested in celebrating with him, though. His mannerisms are unsettling as he's sloppy-drunk and agitated. But after a few moments of demanding that he leave their house, Kim and Kimmy's faces turn from sternness to fear.



Lalo Salamanca, the notorious drug gang leader Jimmy helped skip bail on a murder charge, walks in through the door Howard left ajar.

Jimmy and Kim are terrified for their lives upon seeing Lalo and just want Howard to leave— for his own safety. But Howard, drunk and already on the offensive in his little game, is heedless of the danger. Lalo pulls out a gun a shoots him.

It's a sad ending for Howard. As much as he was a total ass-hat to Jimmy and Kim earlier in the series, it was hard not to feel a little sympathy for him at this point. His wife was already treating him like a housemate, and Kim and Jimmy's con had just ruined him, professionally. And now Lalo. Lalo didn't even know Howard; didn't even know his name. Lalo shoots him just to terrify Jimmy and Kim into complying with the request he makes next.